Andrei Pantea, former prime deputy-prosecutor has been detained for 72 hours by the anticorruption prosecutors for abuse of power and transfer of the Karamalak case to the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Press officer of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Maria Vieru, confirmed the information.

Previously, the portal Anticoruptie.md requested several times the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor Viorel Morari, to confirm or refute this information. He refused to respond.

Andrei Pantea resigned from office, when the Superior Council of Prosecutors accepted his letter of resignation dated 21 September, 2015.  Former prosecutor did not indicate in his letter of resignation the reason for leaving. A few months ago, the former prosecutor got the license of lawyer.

Andrei Pantea served as deputy prosecutor general for five years. After the term expired, he was transferred to the position of deputy prosecutor of municipality Chisinau. Over the years, Andrei Pantea was in the attention of several investigations in the workplace, he was accused of corruption acts and relationship with the underworld.

In 2011, just one year after he was appointed first deputy prosecutor general, Andrei Pantea was accused by colleagues of divulging information in the case of Russian blogger Eduard Baghirov in an interview for newspaper Timpul. A year later, prosecutor Pantea was accused by an inmate of having taken a bribe of 20,000 euros, in exchange for a promise that he will be acquitted of murder charges.

Ziarul de Garda wrote earlier that criminal cases opened in Moldova on the name of the famous thief in law Grigore Karamalak were sent under the signature of Andrei Pantea to authorized bodies of the Russian Federation. Therefore, Grigore Karamalak could come to Moldova without being detained or punished for his offenses, because the competent authorities of Russia acquitted him.

Realitatea TV station broadcast in March 2015, a recording of a phone conversation between the prosecutor and the former athlete Ion Soltoianu, convicted for shooting the former police officer Ion Stratulat in a restaurant in the center of Chisinau.

"I want to congratulate you on Prosecution Day. Be healthy and proud. Keep on track”, said Ion Soltoianu from prison to Andrei Pantea. The latter said that the recording was faked.

When Andrei Pantea quitted the seat of prosecutor, he had a rich property, even if officially his family did not have businesses and lived on state money. His wife, Ala Pantea worked for several years under a project of the Ministry of Agriculture.  The Center for Investigative Journalism has revealed in an investigation about the property of prosecutors, that Andrei Pantea built a modern two-storey house on a street in town Codru, Chisinau. In the 2013 statement on income, Pantea declared that he bought a plot for which he paid nearly 44,000 lei. It means that the prosecutor built his house within 2 years. The prosecutor, who initially refused to provide details about his new house as this falls under personal data, he said: “It is still under construction until it is not officially commissioned “.

Also, Andrei Pantea has a few apartments and parents’ house in district Hancesti.  He bought one apartment in 2009 with a surface of ​​103 square meters, in 2011- an apartment of 32 square meters and in 2013; he has invested in an apartment of 66 square meters, which cost 400,000 lei. At chapter “Debts”, Andrei Pantea has indicated that he has a mortgage agreement with the company "Basconlux” that builds blocks in which prosecutors have bought houses twice cheaper than market price. The initial value of the agreement amounted to almost 48,000 euros.  The prosecutor owns three cars, including a BMW X5, 2006 and purchased in 2013 at the price of 150,000 lei. "Do you think that a prosecutor must live on the bank of river Bic? To raise a hut there?  Wearing rubber boots? Think of the work experience in the Prosecution”, said Andrei Pantea.

Coincidentally or not, Andrei Pantea has resigned after Ion Diacov, former prosecutor of Chisinau accused his employee in a press conference. "Pantea was my deputy prosecutor in the past.  He was quite modest, rented a house. I requested a two -room flat for him from the City Hall.  But, once he was promoted to the central office, he obtained a house, apartments and cars. I do not understand. Does Prosecutor General give diamonds instead of salaries? ", asked rhetorically Ion Diacov.