Moldovan oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, who is wanted, said on Friday on social networks that he is free and his safety is not threatened.
Earlier, the leader of the Moldovan “Our Party”, Renato Usatii, reported on Plahotniuc’s detention in the USA for violating the migration regime.
“I would like to inform you that I am safe… …I am free and I am doing well. I’m sorry that some people put on plays and resort to break news to achieve some goals, including increasing their audience and the number of likes. I suggest they redirect their energy to solving citizens’ problems”, – Plahotniuk wrote on his Facebook page.
In December 2019, the Moldovan law enforcement authorities sent a request to the competent authorities of Romania, Great Britain and the USA to locate Plahotniuc, who also holds documents in the name of Vladislav Novak. Moldovan President Igor Dodon said in late February that Plahotniuc is in the USA.
Plahotniuc is an ex-deputy and one of the richest businessmen in Moldova. In November 2017, the Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested Plahotniuc in absentia and declared him on international wanted list in the case of attempted murder. In February, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that the police had stopped the activities of the international criminal community, which in 2013-2014 took out more than 37 billion rubles outside Russia. It was established that the organizers of the criminal association were Plahotniuk and Vyacheslav Platon, who have Russian citizenship. Moscow’s Tverskoy court in absentia issued a sanction for the arrest of Plahotniuk in the case of establishing a criminal association and drug trafficking.
In Plahotniuk’s homeland, the accused are being prosecuted in two cases involving money laundering on especially large scale. In particular, he is suspected of creating a scheme for laundering 18 million dollars and 3.5 million euros through a network of economic agents in 2013-2015. Plahotniuk left the country at the beginning of June last year, on the 24th of the same month he said that he was leaving the post of the head of the Democratic Party and on July 30, 2019 he gave up his mandate as a deputy.