The decision by the US and UK authorities to impose international sanctions against several natural persons and legal entities, including Vladimir Plahotniuc and Ilan Shor, is an impetus for a series of legislative changes, which would allow the return of money and assets acquired through illegal means. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița and Minister of Justice, Sergiu Litvinenco, presented the Magnitsky Moldova Law on International  Anti-Corruption Day.

"It is a draft law that transposes international sanctions into the legislation of the Republic of Moldova. It's a complex bill that was inspired both by the US legislation and by those that work successfully in Canada, Lithuania, and Great Britain," explained Litvinenco.

The draft contains provisions that will clarify in detail which natural and legal persons may be subject to sanctions.

"Here there will be people who were directly included in the list of international sanctions, but the sanctioning measures will also be subject to people who were not included in the list but have certain direct or indirect links with the people included in the list", added the minister.

All those who will be included in the list of Magnitsky or similar sanctions will have all their assets in Moldova frozen. They will not be able to sell, donate or transfer them to other people. At the same time, the state will be able to take over the administration of the assets of the persons included in the list of sanctions and their affiliated persons.

The activity of natural and legal persons, including on the US sanctions list for persistent influence campaigns and acts of corruption, is already monitored in the Republic of Moldova. In this regard, the Commission for Exceptional Situations has approved a series of decisions that transpose the effect of the sanctions imposed by The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury, reports the press service of the Government in Chisinau.

Thus, reporting entities will apply increased precautionary measures regarding transactions that do not correspond to the daily activity of persons subject to sanctions, as well as persons suspected of being associated with them. The list of the latter will be developed and updated by the Information and Security Service, which will collaborate in this regard with the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering Service, the National Bank of Moldova, and other public authorities with incident powers in the given field.