On November 21, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (PA) announced the seizure of assets worth 11.7 million lei, including a house and a plot of land in Chisinau valued at nearly 3.5 million lei. These assets belong to Vitalie Pirlog, a former Minister of Justice and ex-director of Moldova’s Intelligence and Security Service (SIS), and former member of INTERPOL.
Although the PA has yet to confirm Mr Pirlog’s role in an investigation codenamed as „INTERPOL”, RISE Moldova has learned that the former government official is suspected of passive corruption – more commonly known as accepting bribes – in the interest of an organized criminal group or criminal organization.
Mr Pirlog has asked a court of law to annul the search protocol following a search operation at his residence in Chisinau last June.
Vitalie Pirlog at the ceremony of his appointment as director of the Intelligence and Security Service, 2017. Source: sis.md
“INTERPOL” CASE AND PIRLOG’S ROLE
Last summer, PA prosecutors unveiled a major corruption case involving Moldovan public officials helping criminals from various countries avoid INTERPOL’S „Red Notices.” These are alerts sent by a convicting country to other nations for apprehension and extradition of suspects.
Specifically, individuals convicted in countries like France, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, or Ukraine illegally obtained „asylum seeker” status in Moldova. This status excluded them from INTERPOL’s Red Notice database, allowing them to travel freely worldwide.
What is a Red Notice?
It is a formal request filed with the law-enforcement authorities across the world to locate an individual for apprehension and extradition. It precedes an arrest warrant or court order issued by the soliciting country. Member countries may apply their own laws to decide what measures are taken pertaining to a Red Notice.
Between 2017 and 2022, Vitalie Pirlog chaired Moldova’s INTERPOL commission that reviews the Red Notices. Prosecutors allege that during that period, in complicity with a lawyer and a company in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mr Pirlog filed false information and documents with INTERPOL, asking blocking Red Notices for their clients under the pretext of their asylum-seeker status in Moldova.
Furthermore, along with other Moldovan officials, Mr Pirlog and his associates arranged for the award of fake „asylum-seeker” status while applicants’ lawyers filed for asylum with the General Inspectorate for Migration without welcoming any applicants on Moldovan territory, which is a mandatory requirement. Subsequently, upon receiving false information claiming that those individuals had applied for asylum in Moldova, INTERPOL blocked the Red Notices on their names.
Evidence collected by investigators reveals that at least 26 individuals had submitted false files to INTERPOL via this scheme, disrupting criminal investigations worldwide, including in countries like France, Australia, and China.
Who is Vitalie Pirlog
Vitalie Pîrlog is a lawyer by profession. He served as the Minister of Justice during Moldova’s communist administration. In 2012, he applied for the position of Prosecutor General of Moldova but failed the cross examination in the Parliament. Between 2010 and 2014, he ran for a seat in the Parliament twice on the Communist Party’s ticket, both times unsuccessfully. He led the SIS for only three months and between 2017 and 2022served as the chair of INTERPOL’s National Files Verification Commission, which oversees Red Notice review. More details HERE.
According to a recent New York Times article quoting Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Veronica Dragalin, fake assylum-seekers had paid between $1 million and $3 million to be removed from the Red Notice list. The report also claims that Pirlog currently resides in Dubai, leaving Moldova shortly before the June searche operation.
RISE Moldova has identified Vitalie Pirlog in a picture published by the Dubai Cybersecurity Council. He appears to be a member of the advisory board in the CyTaka World Cyber Nations Championships, a contest for programmers and cybersecurity experts that the UAE capital hosted in January 2023.
Vitalie Pirlog (second row, third from right) at the Cyber Nations Championship. Source: csc.gov.ae
Our reporters have also analyzed Mr Pirlog’s revenues. He officially earned 1.35 million lei in 2015. In 2017, when he joined INTERPOL, his earnings jumped to nearly 5.8 million lei, or more than 480,000 lei a month – that is approximately €25,000.
If convicted, Mr Pirlog faces 7 to 15 years in prison, a fine up to 500,000 lei, and a 10- to 15-year ban on holding public office.
SEARCHES AND PIRLOG’S COMPLAINTS
House of Vitalie Pirlog, 2013. Foto:zdg.md
On June 4, 2024, prosecutors and police searched the residence owned by Vitalie Pirlog in Chisinau. Before the operation, the building’s caretaker received a formal search warrant issued by the PA. Mr Pirlog disputes the search operation and asked a court of law to dismiss the search protocol.
In a recent filing with the Constitutional Court. Mr Pirlog and his lawyer Nicolae Posturusu challenged the legal provision of exceptionality allowing searches of lawyers suspected of corruption, arguing that it violated their independence and expose them to abuse (Articles 324-326 of the Moldovan Penal Code).
They claimed the provision in question undermined the fundamental legal principles that shield the independence of lawyers against unjustified meddling from the state. Mr Pirlog argued that the provision weakens the position of lawyers, making them more vulnerable to abuse by criminal investigation authorities, which contradicts the fundamental principles of law, including the right to defense and equality before the law. In his case, this provision was used to justify the searches conducted at his residence, which he deems illegal.
His motion was filed in early October and the Constitutional Court has yet to pass a decision.
RISE Moldova has asked Pirlog’s lawyer Nicolae Posturusu what is his client’s stance on the substance of investigation, but did not reply by the time of publication.
BENEFICIARIES OF THE MOLDOVAN FAKE ASYLUM SCHEME
A publicly available document reveals the names of 24 individuals who had allegedly benefitted from the Pirlog-led scheme with fake asylum applications. The identities of some of those individuals had been known to Moldovan media for a while. Drug trafficking, money laundering, bank fraud are common offenses these people, RISE Moldova has learned after screening names. For example:
Chen Mulin, a Cypriot-Cambodian national behind in Southeast Asia’s largest money laundering case in Singapore in 2023. According to an OCCRP investigation, Mulin had held at least 24 residences in Dubai worth more than $20 million. Some were located in 62-storey skyscrapers with a panoramic view in Dubai. Two days ago, the OCCRP said Mulin volunteered to surrender assets worth $2.03 billion, prompting Singapore police to drop the Red and Blue Notices at INTERPO against the man and his associates under money-laundering suspicion. Yet they’ve been slapped with a lifetime ban to enter Singapore.
Murat Usenov, son of Kyrgyzstan’s ex-premier, had been convicted for money laundering.
Andrey Shlyaknovoy, a Russian banker convicted of embezzling 130 million rubles from Agrosoyuz Bank.
Serhyi Osherovskyi, a Ukrainian-Israeli national wanted for extortion of $1 million and links with the underworld.
Duan Hongtao, a majority shareholder in a Chinese bank is accused of embezzling $358 million with insider associates and laundering $248 million through cryptocurrency exchanges, then spending the stolen money on a lavish-styled life.
Sergey Shpak, a Russian businessman sentenced in Russia in 2019 for a fraud valued at 1.8 billion rubles. Before turning to the Moldovan network for help, he had asked Igor Sosnovsky, a former advisor to the former Ukrainian prime minister, to get his named removed from the international manhunt list, promising in return $5 million. In 2021, Sosnovsky was arrested upon receiving the first tranche of the money and the deal fell.
Tarik Kerbouci, 39, is a suspected drug trafficker and France sought to bring him to justice over three tons of cocaine the police seized near Marseille in 2020. He fled the country and got rid of INTERPOL thanks to corrupt Moldovan officials.
Sergey Shpak, Sergyi Osherovskyi, Murat Usenov, Andrey Shlyaknovoy – beneficiaries of the Moldovan corruption scheme that deleted INTERPOL Red Notices. Collage: RISE Moldova.
UPDATE, November 25, 2024
Vitalie Pirlog’s lawyer, Nicolae Posturusu, has responded to RISE Moldova’s request for comments from his client about the investigation and whether Mr Pirlog intended to show up to defend himself. Mr Posturusu said that the statements made by PA chief Veronica Dragalin “were not backed up with concrete evidence” and that he had submitted documents demonstrating no connection between Mr Pirlog and the UAE-based company in any illegal activities including corruption or money laundering.
The company’s name is VR Legal Advisory FZ-LLC; it is headquartered in Dubai and is cited in the official Moldovan investigation alongside Mr Pirlog. Never has this company been part of activities the prosecutor had claimed, he added.
Nicolae POSTURUSU, lawyer for Vitalie Pirlog: Official reports indicate that the company’s activities were fully legitimate and conducted in accordance with the laws of the United Arab Emirates. A court-appointed expert in the UAE confirmed that the company’s reports are accurate and do not show any evidence of involvement in illegal activities.
RISE Moldova has also seen three documents which – according to the lawyer – had been issued by an audit firm in Dubai to conclude that neither Mr. Pirlog nor VR Legal Advisory FZ-LLC had been involved in illegal operations or money laundering.
The statement of Nicolae Posturusu regarding the case is HERE.
Audit papers sent by the lawyer to RISE Moldova
Marcela ZAMOSTEANU
Fact-checking: RISE Moldova’s fact-checking department
This is a translated version of the original text in Romanian, available HERE.
