Scandal(s) at the Chisinau Airport
Quick Hit: April 13, 2024
This week there have been updates in the story we wrote about last week regarding an operation by Anti-Corruption Prosecutors targeting customs officers at the airport. The operation implicated the children of two current and one former member of parliament and resulted in PAS removing MP Victoria Cazacu from the party. Now, a second scandal has erupted with the announcement that Anti-Corruption Prosecutors have opened a criminal case in relation to the government’s attempts to auction off retail concessions at the airport. We’ll take them one by one.
Scandal 1: The Case of the Custom’s Officers
The story about the raid on the airport last week largely focused on customs officers allegedly extorting or accepting bribes from passengers in order to skip import procedures. This case implicated the daughter of PAS MP Victoria Cazacu who was removed from the party and called on to resign from parliament. Pressure that she has thus far resisted. It also resulted in the resignation of the Director of the Customs Service Igor Talmazan who rook responsibility for not catching the corruption at the airport. This week Talmazan’s deputy director also resigned saying that he came on board with the director and felt it was appropriate to leave with him.
MP Victoria Cazacu’s daughter Diana Cazacu gave a press conference on the circumstances noting that she is a suspect but has not been charged. She addressed the issue of her mother saying "My mother is not responsible for me, and I am not responsible for my mother’s actions." Diana Cazacu went on to decry the lack of presumption of innocence and due process as applies to her mother. She also directly appealed to President Sandu and Speaker Grosu saying:
“Madam President Maia Sandu, we know each other, and you know about me, about the results of my work in the interests of the state. You know me as an honest and professional person who has always worked in the interests of the country. Mr. Speaker of Parliament Igor Grosu, you know better than anyone how in 2022 I came to the Customs Service, having transferred from the SIS…”
Diana Cazacu did not answer journalists questions about how she knew the president or other officials. She worked for SIS until 2022 at which time she left after alleging sexual harassment against a director of the service.
Diana Cazacu went on to outline what she called “hidden interests” which conspired against her stating:
"After the searches a week ago, I have the status of a suspect, because there is not enough evidence to charge me. (…) Now I explain why, in my opinion, I was drawn into this scandal with the criminal case. At the beginning of last autumn, the director of the Customs Service, Igor Talmazan, discussed my potential candidacy as the head of the customs post at the Airport. In a short time, the current head of the post began to tell his colleagues that I would apply for his position. Then I felt a change in attitude towards me from the head of the post and I already sensed that various unpleasant surprises could be organized for me"
Who is Alexandr Vakre head of the Airport Customs Service?
While the national director and deputy director of the customs service resigned over the investigation, Alexandr Vakre director of the Customer Service at the airport did not. Diana Cazacu is alleging that Mr. Vakre is somehow involved in the investigation targeting her (Mr. Vakre has not given comments to journalists).
News outlet ZdG reported that Mr. Vakre has filed unusual wealth declarations in past years. In his 2023 declaration he reported income of 293,000 lei from his job with Customs. At the same time his wife reported income of around 8.4 million lei (~$476,000) from her work at an offshore company called “Telecomservice” as well as dividends from 2 companies in Germany totaling around 20,000 euros. Also, in 2016 she borrowed 450,000 euros interest free from an offshore company called "Avela Management" LTD which she will have to repay by 2030.
ZdG’s investigation linked an article they ran back in 2017 that drew in some of the same offshore companies. In this article Anti-Corruption Police (CNA) arrested a man for allegedly running 3 offshore companies - "Aviaport," "Telecomservice" and "TPS Consult” - allegedly engaged in money laundering. In this scheme, employees in Moldova would be hired by companies and officially employed for the minimum wage (2000 lei at the time) while receiving bank cards from a Latvian bank which the offshore companies would deposit money onto. This allowed companies to evade Moldova’s high income tax system (a topic that Moldova Matters has written about extensively in the past). At the time police alleged that 180 persons received over 4 million euros in 1 year through this scheme. The charges were eventually dropped without public explanation.
ZdG reports that "TPS Consult” and "Avela Management" are the same company and that Mrs. Vakre worked at "Aviaport" from 2017-2018. This directly ties her to all 3 suspect companies from the past investigation.
What’s going on here?
This case began as a raid against customs officers taking bribes as small as 50 lei to allow arriving passengers not to declare items they are importing (this could be as simple as a second cell phone). It then escalated into a major political scandal with the implication of the children of multiple MP’s - a situation that minimally asks the question “what are the chances of that happening?”
Now we’ve escalated further with one suspect pointing the finger at the Director of Airport Customs - a person that journalists quickly discovered had more than a little “oddness” in his financial life.
Right now there are no clear connections between these various events. Nothing connects Diana Cazacu, who has not yet been charged with a crime, to her mother MP Victoria Cazacu other than a familial relationship. Nothing connects all these offshore companies with the Anti-Corruption raid. Nothing public corroborates the various allegations Diana Cazacu is making against Mr. Vakre. So while there is no fire, there seems to be an awful lot of smoke here. We’ll be following this story in weeks to come.
Scandal 2: The Airport Tender Process
This week Anti-Corruption Prosecutors have confirmed the opening of a criminal case regarding the failed attempt by the airport and government to auction retail and concessions space in the airport through a public tender.
Prosecutors have asked airport management for details about the preparation of the tender as well as various documents. They stated:
"the analysis of the accumulated materials indicates dubious circumstances and alleged illegal actions of favoritism of a company to the detriment of a transparent and fair process of organizing the public auction, which harms the interest of the state."
Recall: A tender calling on companies to submit proposals to rent and develop retail and concessions space at the airport was announced in January. On February 19th the tendering process was canceled by the Public Property Agency (APP) because only 2 companies applies - French company Lagardere and local company Le Bridge. Minister of Infrastructure Andrei Spînu said at the time that the tender "was sabotaged," and various political groups and commentators speculated about irregularities and wrongdoing. The APP updated some elements of the tender and relaunched it on March 19th hoping to attract more bidders.
ZdG confirmed that Anti-Corruption Prosecutors began their investigation with a self-referral (at their own initiative) after blogger Eugen Luchianiuc wrote about the tender in January. Eugen Luchianiuc is called a “controversial blogger” by ZdG who noted that he had a history of releasing false information.
In his blog Mr. Luchianiuc alleges that the tendering process was rigged in favor of the French company Lagardere Travel Retail SAS. He bases this allegation on the following information:
French company Lagardere Travel Retail SAS founded a wholly owned subsidiary called Lagardere Travel Retail SRL in Moldova in November 2023 - before the tender was announced.
Newsweek Romania previously reported that Lagardere Travel Retail SAS won a tender at the Bucharest OTP airport under suspicious circumstances. All other bidders were eliminated in the process removing German and Turkish companies from being considered. Newsweek focuses on the highly specific criteria for participating in the tender that seemed to uniquely qualify Lagardere. The blogger alleges that a similar process was used in Chisinau to rig the tender.
Prosecutors in Moldova are apparently seeking information about how the criteria for the tender was designed. Moldova’s tender process also had highly constricting criteria requiring bidding companies to already be operating in 10 EU airports, servicing 2.5 million passengers / year and other similar criteria. Public allegations suggest that this criteria was drawn up specifically to favor the French company. At the same time, the actual object of prosecutors’ investigation is not known.
This story is also developing and we will follow it in the coming weeks.
Move along folks, just another corruption filled day in Moldova