The ex-prime minister, Vlad FIlat, is expected on Monday at the Chisinau Court, central office, where the examination of the civil case against his former defender, Igor Popa, will continue. Vlad Filat accuses the latter of defamation and spreading false information.
          
Taken into management back in November 2020, the case is currently still in the examination process, and the meetings, seven in number so far, are being postponed. The last one, on November 2, 2022, had the same fate, with no clear cause indicated.

          
In 2020, the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission of the Moldovan Lawyers Union decided to revoke the license of the former defender of Vlad Filat. The reason was a complaint filed by the former prime minister, who pointed out that the defender would have violated ethical norms when he made certain disclosures about him in a TV show. Popa contested the decision in court, but the judges have not yet commented on the case.

Vlad Filat reacted to the revelations of his former lawyer and categorized them as "lies". In addition to the complaint filed with the Ethics and Discipline Commission, the former prime minister also filed a complaint with the Prosecutor's Office, for violating the secrecy of correspondence and the illegal collection of information related to private life.

Igor Popa admitted that he reported Vlad Filat to the German authorities for money laundering. "I hold a German lawyer's license, and German law obliges lawyers to report if they know of serious crimes committed by their clients. If I didn't report it, I risked losing my license in Germany. We do not distinguish between professional secrecy, freedom of expression, and the lawyer's obligations", Igor Popa justified himself to Anticoruptie. md.

In September 2022, Igor Popa was found guilty of slandering his former client Vlad Filat. It happened a year away after he was penalized for defamation. The lawyer contested the decision in court, and the magistrates, although they found him guilty of slander, terminated the contravention process because the statute of limitations had expired. Later, the decision was upheld without changes by the judges of the Chisinau Court of Appeal.

Vlad Filat was detained in the autumn of 2015 based on a complaint submitted by the fugitive leader of the Shor party, Ilan Shor, who stated that Filat had asked him for valuable gifts and money. The ex-prime minister was convicted of influence peddling and passive corruption and received 9 years in prison with execution. The reduction of the sentence due to poor detention conditions allowed the release of Vlad Filat in December 2019.

The Center for Journalistic Investigations revealed in an extensive press investigation how the former prime minister escaped confiscation of his assets seized in the corruption case in which he was investigated and convicted.