The Supreme Court of Justice issued Wednesday, August 3, a final and irrevocable  judgment by which  banned Dufremol company, owned by businessman Ilan Shor, to build duty-free filling stations. Earlier, the businessman said that he had obtained this right owing to a deal with former Prime Minister Vlad Filat.

The company sued the Customs Office Ungheni and Customs Office Leuseni and obliged them to approve and sign the proceedings dated January 13, 2015 regarding the selection of land for the location of filling stations on lands which were previously leased to the company to build duty-free shops.

Dufremol grounded its claims on the Regulation to implement customs destinations, adopted in 2005 that enabled duty free marketing of fuel in unlimited amounts. Igor Dodon was Deputy-minister of Economy in that period. By a decision of Filat in October 2010, potential sales of duty-free fuel were limited, setting a limit on the size of the fuel tank  of a vehicle crossing the state border. Two years later, in December 2012, the same government operated new amendments on the Regulation and included petrol products in the list of products which cannot be commercialized under duty-free regime.

In autumn 2015, in the denouncement submitted to the National Anti-corruption Center, Ilan Shor reveals that he had a prior agreement with former Prime Minister Vlad Filat that he would set conditions for future Dufremol business with duty-free petrol products, but Filat changed his mind after Ilan Shor refused to redeem a debt of one billion lei from Banca de Economii.

Magistrates from the Supreme Court  of Justice examined this week the case  and established that the claims of Dufremol company  are unfounded because the land  which the Customs Office Ungheni  (1.65 ha in the village of Sculeni, border crossing point) and the  Customs Office Leuseni (0, 28 ha in settlement Leuseni)  leased to this company was intended for the construction, location and operation of commercial property designated for sale of  duty-free goods in line with the Moldovan legislation in force, but not for construction of filling stations, regardless of the fact that they were supposed to operate in duty-free regime or general regime.

Earlier, a similar decision was adopted by the Court of Appeal.