RISE Moldova: The Studios Where TV Stations Affiliated to Vlad Plahotniuc Broadcast, Sequestered. Reaction of Oleg Cristal

According to RISE Moldova, a number of properties registered to Finpar Invest, a company affiliated to Democratic Party MP Vladimir Plahotniuc, were sequestered by investigators within a criminal case initiated for money laundering. Among these, the studios of Prime TV, Publika TV, Canal 2 and Canal 3 television broadcasters and Publika FM and MUZ FM radio stations were sequestered. This case is investigated by the employees of National Anti-Corruption Center (NAC) and Agency for the Recovery of Criminal Assets (ARCA).

Prime TV and Publika TV officially belong to Vlad Plahotniuc, while Canal 2 and Canal 3 are owned by his political advisor Oleg Cristal.
According to RISE Moldova, on 26 June ARCA issued the document No 21/1-3645 by which it sequestered for a period of 15 days several properties owned by Finpar Invest SRL. In their turn, on 27 June, NAC officers obtained a court order and also confiscated the property of Finpar Invest, as per cadastral extracts.

According to the publication, the studios occupy the area of about eight thousand square meters and are worth about MDL 30 million. Finpar does not own the land plot of more than one hectare where studios are located, but the company is involved in a court action with the Public Property Agency for privatisation of this land.

Media-azi.md tried to get a comment from Oleg Cristal on the broadcast information. ‘No comments. The case involves buildings owned by Finpar company. TV companies rent these studios’, Oleg Cristal commented.

The advisor said that the case referred to the company which owned these studios and that he did not want it to be confused with media outlets that rent this area. Cristal added that TV channels continue to operate normally.

According to the Code of Criminal Procedure, goods sequestration is ‘a coercive procedural measure consisting of inventorying the goods and prohibiting the owner or possessor from disposing of those goods or, if necessary, to use such goods’. According to the law, upon sequestering bank accounts and deposits, any operations with those accounts or deposits shall be terminated.

Sequestering goods shall be done to secure the recovery of damage caused by the crime, to secure a civil action or an eventual special sequestration of the goods or value of the goods intended or used in the commission of a crime or resulting from the commission of the crime.