The Chișinău Court of Appeal has doubled the amount of moral damages awarded to former judge Ștefan Niță. The ex-magistrate is now set to receive 800,000 lei, up from the 400,000 lei awarded by the trial court. Although Niță was convicted in the “Laundromat” case for knowingly issuing a ruling contrary to the law, he was cleared of another charge – complicity in money laundering. As reported by the portal Anticoruptie.md, the state is expected to pay a total of 3,526,000 lei in moral damages to judges previously investigated for involvement in laundering 22 billion dollars from Russia but later cleared of criminal liability. Some of them were convicted, others acquitted in the same Laundromat case. A total of 14 former and current judges have filed claims seeking moral damages. The Ministry of Justice stated that all court rulings have been appealed and that it is seeking the dismissal of all claims as unfounded.

Niță told the court that the period of criminal investigation had severely impacted his psychological and emotional well-being.

On April 3 of this year, former judge Ștefan Niță was convicted in the Laundromat case but will serve no sentence due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. According to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, the conviction is “an important decision for the investigation of a major international scheme through which a total of $156 billion was laundered, including $22 billion through Moldova’s banking and judicial systems.”

Niță is accused of having issued, in 2011, a court order while serving as a judge, mandating the collection of a $200 million debt in favor of a company from New Zealand, despite the absence of documents proving the creditor’s representative’s authority.

Prosecutors also claim that the former magistrate ignored the fact that other documents attached to the case were neither properly authenticated nor legally certified. As a result, he allegedly violated legal procedures in delivering the ruling.

The ruling issued by Niță on July 22, 2011, had significant financial consequences – $200 million, equivalent to 2.3 billion lei according to the official exchange rate set by the National Bank of Moldova at the time.

The judgment was later handed over to a bailiff, who forcibly collected, between July 2011 and February 2012, a total of 5.5 billion Russian rubles from correspondent accounts of Russian banks held at Moldinconbank. The funds were converted and transferred to the account of the New Zealand company.

The criminal investigation lasted about four months, while court proceedings dragged on for seven years. Prosecutors explain this delay by the numerous recusal requests filed by Niță’s lawyers, which repeatedly restarted the trial process. The case was before the first-instance court starting June 24, 2017, and was handled by the current judicial panel from March 9, 2023, until April 3, 2024.

Nevertheless, Ștefan Niță did not admit guilt and has appealed the trial court’s decision.