Businessman Ilan Shor, mayor of town Orhei was detained for 72 hours. According to anticorruption prosecutor Adriana Betisor, he is charged with money laundering and swindle in the loans in considerable amounts released illegally by Banca de Economii in 2014. It’s another suit, in addition to the one from 2014, where Ilan Shor has the status of an accused.

"It’s a new criminal investigation into bank fraud and namely fraud in very big amount and money laundering. After the information we’ve got the financial-economic analyses from abroad, from counterparts from Latvia and other states, we have returned to this position and have supported with reasonable grounds to apply this preventive measure”, said Adriana Betisor. Also, she pointed out that the prosecutors will soon submit an application to the Buiucani Court to issue an arrest warrant for 30 days against Ilan Shor.

On the other hand, Ilan Shor’s lawyers consider prosecutors’ actions are illegal and unfounded. “No new evidence to prove Ilan Shor’s blame was provided, especially over the charges on which he was arrested. The Prosecutor’s Office should not follow the slogans that some have actively formulated lately, but should obey the law and manage facts and proofs” , said the lawyers.

The businessman who served as president of the Administration Council of Banca de Economii (BEM) was detained in May 2015 as he was charged with fraud in big amount and money laundering. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office had requested to have Shor arrested, but the court applied another kind of preventive measure.  The businessman escaped prosecution by running for mayor of town Orhei.

Ilan Shor is the main witness in the corruption case against former Prime Minister Vlad Filat. In October 2015, the businessman signed a self-denunciation; published later on by the press, based on which Vlad Filat was detained.  The mayor of Orhei said that conditions related to the scandal with the company Le Bridge forced him to ask for help to Filat and he paid a bribe of 500.000 dollars to end excessive checks and win the trial. Subsequently, Vlad Filat had allegedly asked for a bribe of one million dollars to allow duty-free trade with oil in the customs area of the Republic of Moldova. Initially, he paid half a million, and the liberal-democratic leader was supposed to get the rest of the money after he completes his promise. Shor has shown in his self-denunciation that Filat proposed to redeem credits from Banca de Economii amounting at one billion lei to solve the problems at the customs and filling stations. The former Prime Minister has not honored his promise; he did not return the money to the businessman. Mayor of Orhei said that he had given to Vlad Filat a sum of 20 million lei last on October 10, 2015 "for the needs of the party" at the office of Liberal-Democrat Party in Moldova (LDPM) on str. Bucuresti in the capital.