"Undercover Operation Exposes Shor's Political Intrigue: Key Figures Arrested"

Quick Hit: September 23, 2023

Welcome back to Moldova Matters. In this Quick Hit article we’re going to dive into the explosive news of prosecutors and undercover politicians infiltrating Ilan Shor’s political apparatus and the major arrests that resulted in their work. This news, and other updates about the Unconstitutional Shor Party’s work have dominated headlines in the past few days so we’re going to focus on these updates today and then bring out a normal Weekly Roundup in the coming days.

Prosecutors Arrest Shor “Party” Affiliates

On September 21st Interim Prosecutor General Ion Munteanu appeared in Parliament to request the lifting of parliamentary immunity of 2 “independent” MPs, Irina Lozovan and Alexandr Nesterovschi. The Interim Prosecutor General presented 5 charges all related to “illegal political financing on behalf of a criminal group,” including knowingly accepting such funds, money laundering in large proportions, etc. After consideration, parliament approved all 5 requests.

Recall, Alexandr Nesterovschi and Irina Lozovan were formerly Socialist Party MPs who defected in March to the Shor Party and have been accused by Igor Dodon and other Socialists figures of having been “bought” by the fugitive oligarch.

In parallel, Anti-Corruption Prosecutors, CNA and SIS conducted sweeping searches of properties associated with the MPs as well as the Renaissance Party which they founded. Searches included 20 properties in Chisinau, Balti, Singerei and Edinet as well as 9 cars. These searches resulted in the seizure of mobile phones, computers, documents and cash - 189,000 lei 25,000 euro 2,400 USD and 4,500 Swiss Franks.

Following the lifting of parliamentary immunity Irina Lozovan and Alexandr Nesterovschi were arrested by law enforcement.

At the same time, law enforcement arrested civic activist Mihail Bagas who had just filed 2 days before to run for Mayor of Chisinau for the party “League of Cities and Communes (LOC).” Initial statements from prosecutors only said that Bagas is suspected of illegal party financing and money laundering on behalf of an organized criminal group on a large scale.

Following these dramatic arrests, prosecutors have begun explaining what was a long term and elaborate operation to infiltrate the Shor network. It began with Alexandr Nesterovschi, who prosecutors allege left the Socialist Party and defected to Shor in March in exchange for a $5000 / mo salary from the fugitive oligarch. Alexandr Nesterovschi was then documented delivering a paper bag with $50,000 and 100,000 lei to a “former MP” who had agreed to lead a pro-European Party which would be secretly controlled by Ilan Shor.

Interim Prosecutor General Ion Munteanu explained the situation stating:

“So, deputy Nesterovsky, who since March has been acting in the interests of Shor’s criminal group, has prepared the conditions for the creation of a new pro-European party that will act in the interests of Ilan Shor. In particular, Nesterovsky recruited a former deputy who was a member of parliament from 2019 to 2021. This ex-deputy, according to Shor’s plan, was to create a pro-European party that would act on Shor’s instructions. However, this ex-deputy reported the recruitment attempt to law enforcement agencies and subsequently acted undercover,”

He then stated that the ex-MP in question was Arina Spataru, previously of the Platform DA faction, PAS’s electoral ally in parliament before 2021. Spataru left DA after losing her seat in parliament and founded the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party. On April 15th Alexandr Nesterovschi approached Arina Spataru about “buying” her and the ALDE party and turning them into Shor agents. Spataru then contacted law enforcement and prosecutors. Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Veronica Dragalin began the investigation by working with Spataru to record direct phone calls that she had with Ilan Shor in Israel. Following these initial intercepts, Dragalin asked Spataru to go undercover for a long term operation.

During the undercover operation, Arina Spataru had multiple phone conversations with Shor and traveled to Israel to meet him in person. Shor gave her a phone and used the “Bria” VOIP app for “secure” communications. In reality, Anti-Corruption Prosecutors were able to record calls and meetings and pinpoint Shor’s exact living address in Israel.

Following the press statements by prosecutors, Arina Spataru held her own press conference about the operation saying:

“I have been waiting for this moment since April 15 and I can finally present the details of this investigation. My task was to document how Shor, financed by the Kremlin, is developing his parties in Moldova,” …

“In direct conversations, Ilan Shor confirmed that he receives support from Russia, and his task is to intercept the pro-European vector of Moldova. He also confirmed to me that he controls some prosecutors, judges and even deputies from the ruling party,” …

“We good people need to do something and not sit back and complain that the political system is corrupt. The country can't wait any longer! We initiated this cooperation because we wanted to show PAS representatives that the system can be cleaned up with political will and courage,”

Arina Spataru at her press conference

She claims that the investigation revealed information about who in Moldova had been purchased by Shor, including Mihai Bagas who Spataru claims is a childhood friend of Shor’s. The ex-MP said that Shor has believed that he corrupted the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) party for 5 months, but that in fact the party never went over to Shor and only herself and the Secretary General of ALDE, Adrian Kulay, knew of the operation.

The next day, the National Anti Corruption Center CNA released phone recordings of a call between Ilan Shor and someone named “Adrian.” Adrian’s voice was altered to conceal his identity. The call itself is extraordinarily businesslike. In it Shor offers funding to a political formation that Adrian represents and the two go back and forth discussing budget documents, monthly expenses and “bonuses” for party leaders including “Arina.” Shor agrees to fund the proposed budgets of the party and to increase funds based on a next call to discuss campaign plans. An initial delivery of “100” of an unspecified currency was agreed with subsequent deliveries to be scheduled on the 10th of each month. While Adrian’s voice is concealed, it is fair to speculate that it is Adrian Kulay of the ALDE party on the call where he participated in the undercover operation alongside Arina Spataru.

Initial Reactions

With the fast pace of events (and arrests) the country is suddenly facing a very new type of story. With the help of an honest, and frankly quite brave, ex-MP Arina Spataru, Anti-Corruption Prosecutors have been able to breach Shor’s political operations to an unprecedented level. The Renaissance Party leadership is in jail and audio recordings provided intelligence about funding operations, mechanisms of work and other collaborators such as Mihai Bagas.

Following the news, the League of Cities and Communities party sought to distance itself from Bagas saying that he was not the leader of their party and claiming that the rest of their party is not a Shor cutout.

Arina Spataru’s claim that Shor controls some prosecutors and judges surprised no one, but her claim that he controls some PAS MP’s has raised a lot of eyebrows in Chisinau. The PAS Party has denied this possibility and called these statements “gossip” and “speculation.” There is no indication that Shor identified PAS MPs, judges or prosecutors by name.

At the time of writing, the major winners of this news cycle appear to be Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Veronica Dragalin and ALDE leader Arina Spataru. Veronica Dragalin has been accused of moving too slowly on major corruption cases by various political figures over the course of the summer. It now appears that the former Assistant United States District Attorney has been overseeing complex undercover operations that infiltrated even Shor’s hideout in Israel. Meanwhile, Arina Spataru is now experiencing the national spotlight as her role in this operation massively boosts her credibility and that of the ALDE party, right ahead of the November local elections.

The loser in this story is undoubtably Ilan Shor. Not only did he lose valuable political assets in Moldova, but a strong signal has been sent to people considering defecting to his party in the future. High level political corruption in Moldova has long been fueled by the relative impunity of corrupt politicians and the inability of prosecutors to prove their motives. Now, those considering taking money from Shor will have to consider the possibility that there are moles in his organization recording their conversations and reporting back to the Moldovan authorities.

Addressing all these events, Ilan Shor once again admitted to illegally funding various political parties in Moldova. In an interview earlier in the week he claimed he would fund as many parties as he could saying:

"It doesn’t matter how many parties there are, I will help everyone who is ready to go against the pro-Western predatory regime,”

He claims that such actions are not illegal because they are the same as European Union support to the government. He claims that he knew of Spataru’s undercover status for one and a half months and said:

"it is impossible to deal with pro-European politicians. They are all liars..."

It is hard to imagine higher praise from Mr. Shor.

Other Shor Party News

Amazingly, amidst the blitz of news about these arrests, there were many other Shor related stories of the last week. Here’s a rapid fire roundup of the stories to watch:

• The Shor affiliated "Sance" (Chance) Party has spent massive sums in the last month on party promotion. Billboards for the party have sprung up around the country, online advertising on social media has spiked and party agents are holding meetings and rallies in districts around the country. Former “journalist” Alexei Lungu who heads the party has claimed he does not know where the money for all of this comes from or who is organizing it. He says that he self finances the party and only rents a small conference room and pays a driver out of his own pocket. Investigative outlet ZdG noted that this “driver” appears to also be a trained bodyguard.

• Gagauzia Bashkan Hutsel visited Ankara and met with the Turkish Foreign Minister. In the meeting, she asked the Turkish government to "urge official Chisinau to abandon attempts to destabilize and manipulate the Gagauz autonomy." She also stated that she plans to open a “representative office” of Gagauzia in Ankara. The Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs commented saying that this will not happen.

• GagauziaLand is being planned from an abandoned house. Journalists tracked down the company behind Hutsel’s proposed amusement park in Gagauzia and found it to have been registered on September 8th and officially headquartered in a decrepit abandoned house in a small Gagauzian village.

• The Constitutional Court ruled upholding the prohibition of former members of “Unconstitutional Parties” holding office for 3-5 years. The court split 2-2 on the issue with the 5th judge not attending as she was out sick. According to the law, a split verdict results in the court finding the law in question constitutional. As such, former members of the Shor party are now barred from running for political office for 3-5 years.

• Bashkan Hutsel announced plans to build an international airport in Gagauzia. She claims that a “Turkish investor” has committed 200 million euros for the project and that land has already been secured. The Bashkan says that ground can be broken in 3-4 months. Hutsel published a video showing architectural renderings of the proposed airport. Journalists quickly reported that this video was actually created in 2019 by Shor’s company Avia Invest outlining a potential expansion of the Chisinau airport. The architectural firm behind the plans has said that this was used without permission and is planning to sue the Bashkan. Additionally, the mayor of Ceadir-Lunga, the town where the airport is supposed to be located, said that he first heard about it from the media. He noted that the town does not have any land sufficient for building an airport and that an old Soviet landing strip nearby is owned by the national government not Gagauzia. He further stated that building any kind of airport there is impossible as the town is in close proximity with the Ukrainian border. Any airport there would need approval of Ukraine as it would require their airspace. Putting aside the question of approval, with an active war no commercial planes are using Ukraine’s airspace.

• Prime Minister Recean and the director of SIS met in a closed door “secret” meeting with 9 deputies of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia. According to multiple attendees who spoke to the media immediately after, the Prime Minister asked that the meeting be kept quiet and urged deputies not to rush in appointing Hutsel’s Executive Committee. Other reports by attendees and eventual comment by the government contradicted this and stated that it was a working meeting on topics of mutual interest. The next day the People’s Assembly finally approved Hutsel’s latest executive team by a vote of 20 for, 7 against and 4 abstentions. The final composition dropped some of the controversial Shor affiliates who had no connection to Gagauzia.

• Police seized a large amount of printed election materials from the “Sance” party. Materials included pamphlets, posters, pens, hats and other branded party materials. The printing house had no contract or documentation for the printing. Essentially, police are alleging that the work was paid in cash. The Sance party admitted that the materials were theirs, but denied wrongdoing. They said that they are having trouble opening a bank account and that the materials were printed on credit while the process works out.

• The Balti Central Election Commission BCEC refused to register Marina Tauber as a candidate for mayor. The BCEC cited the recent Constitutional Court ruling barring Tauber and other Shor party figures from standing for office.