BC Moldindconbank S.A.

Main article: Economy of Moldova

History

2024: Moldindconbank owner accused of illegally withdrawing over ₽48 billion from Russia

In mid-October 2024, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs brought charges against Moldovan businessman Vyacheslav Platon of illegally withdrawing more than ₽48 billion from the country. The entrepreneur, who is the actual owner of Moldindkonbank, is charged with organizing a large-scale money laundering scheme known as the Moldavian Landromat. Read more here.

2023: Sentence to the ex-head of Baltika Bank: 17 years in prison in the case of the withdrawal of 46 billion rubles through BC Moldindconbank

In February 2023, Oleg Vlasov received 17 years in prison in the case of the withdrawal of 46 billion rubles from the Russian Federation.

According to the investigation, under the pretext of selling currency, members of the criminal community transferred money in foreign currency to the accounts of BC Moldindconbank S.A., opened, among other things, at Bank of New York.

Then the income from transactions in rubles was written off from the correspondent accounts of Russian banks in BC Moldindconbank S.A. For this, forged decisions of the Moldovan courts in favor of foreign legal entities were used. Then the money was sent to foreign banks.

2021

The Prosecutor General's Office of Moldova refused to extradite Russia to the owner of the bank Vyacheslav Platon

In October 2021, the Prosecutor General's Office of Moldova refused Russia to extradite Vyacheslav Platon, one of the defendants in the case of illegal foreign exchange transactions worth more than 500 billion rubles. He faces up to 20 years for organizing a "Moldavian scheme."

From June 2013 to the end of 2014, the owner of Moldovan bank Moldindconbank Platon, together with the head of the Democratic Party of Moldova Plahotniuc, as well as Alexander Korkin, developed a mechanism for withdrawing money from Russia.

They attracted Rinat Usaty, a native of the Moldavian SSR, owners of a number of banks Alexander Grigoriev and Oleg Kuzmin. With the help of fictitious currency control documents, the group provided the daily transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars and euros to Moldindconbank bank accounts.

It is worth noting that the scheme is not the only one. In Russia, there was also a Bulgarian scheme. But little attention was paid to her.

Moscow court sentenced Elena Platon, director of the bank's treasury, to 10 years in prison

In March 2021, a Moscow court sentenced Elena Platon, director of the treasury of the Moldovan bank BC Moldindconbank S.A., to ten years in prison, in the case of the largest money laundering scheme in the CIS.

The court found that from 2013 to 2014 she was a member of the international criminal community, which was headed by her brother Vyacheslav Platon and the well-known politician and entrepreneur Vladimir Plahotniuc in Moldova. Together with them and the owners of several Russian banks, Alexander Grigoriev and Oleg Kuzmin, Platon illegally withdrew more than 126 billion rubles abroad.

2015: Bank's participation in illegal withdrawal of billions of dollars from Russia

According to the investigation, from June 2013 to the end of 2014, the owner of the Moldovan bank BC Moldindconbank S.A. Vyacheslav Platon, together with the first vice-chairman and de facto leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova, Vladimir Plahotniuc, developed a mechanism for withdrawing money from Russia. The well-known Moldovan businessman and politician Renato Usatii also took part in the scheme. A number of bankers and lawyers were involved from the Russian side. In cooperation with the Director of the Treasury of BC Moldindconbank S. A. Elena Platon, they, using fictitious currency control documents, ensured the daily transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars and euros to bank accounts - BC Moldindconbank S. A.

For the illegal withdrawal of funds in Moldova, they used not gray schemes, but the law enforcement and financial systems of the state. The participants in the scheme were banks from Russia, Moldova, Latvia and Britain.

Very simplified, the scheme consisted in the fact that after signing international contracts between legal entities from the Russian Federation and Moldova, the contracts were terminated, and according to the conditions indicated in them, the Moldovan side demanded the payment of a penalty through the court. Further, on the basis of a court decision, funds from Russia were transferred to the accounts of Moldovan banks, and then to London through the Baltic states. The presence of a court decision from another jurisdiction made it possible to bypass currency control in the Russian Federation. The receipt of fictitious court decisions was put on stream in Moldova.

Vladimir Plahotniuc, Vyacheslav Platon and Renato Usatii, according to the results of the investigation, were put on the international wanted list, and were forced to leave Moldova.

Ultimately, the withdrawn funds, the amount of which, according to various sources, exceeds $20 billion, ended up in accounts with banks in Britain and other Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions, and most of them were eventually blocked as "having a criminal origin."