Seven people came under the scrutiny of the lawmen for the implementation of a scheme of illegal acquisition of land belonging to the City Hall of the Chisinau municipality, through which they caused considerable damage to the municipality. Officials of the Public Services Agency are also suspected of being involved in the scheme, one of them being detained preventively for 72 hours following the searches on Wednesday morning.

"The scheme worked in the following way: an employee of the Public Services Agency identified people with property rights on some lands bordering land plots belonging to the municipality, after which, they installed concrete blocks at the boundaries of the lands. Later, a barn or other supposedly temporary construction was built, already located on the lot of the City Hall, which they legalized, registering it in the Real Estate Register. At the current stage, five cases of the abusive takeover of Chisinau City Hall's properties have been identified," sais a press release from the NAC.

According to the document, the law enforcement officers carried out 9 searches of the persons involved in the organization of the illegal takeover scheme of the municipality's lands. As a result of the criminal investigation, mobile phones, information carriers, and draft documents were seized.

Prosecutors have opened a criminal case for abuse of office in this case.

Over the years, the team of the Center for Investigative Journalism uncovered, in journalistic investigations, several schemes by which land in the municipality of Chisinau, but also other localities, was taken over into private ownership, without any money reaching the public budget. The law enforcement officers did not investigate any of the cases investigated by the CIJM team. Meanwhile, gas stations, multi-storey apartment blocks, or shopping centers have been built on some lands, taken over by court processes, and intended for young families who have no place to live. More details about the land schemes can be found in the journalistic investigations on anticoruptie.md