Government recalled Wednesday, March 22, Gheorghe Hioara from the post of ambassador of Moldova to Belarus. The diplomat would be replaced by the Socialist MP Victor Sorocean. The Center for Investigative Journalism revealed in a previous investigation Victor Sorocean’s problems with  a loan taken in 2007 from Banca Sociala.

Gheorghe Hioara was appointed ambassador of Moldova to Belarus in July 2010. In early March, Moldovan president Igor Dodon wrote on his Facebook page that he discussed with Prime Minister Pavel Filip about the withdrawal of 10 ambassadors and appointment of 17 potential candidates. The list contained his party colleague Victor Sorocean. Andrei Neguta, foreign policy adviser of president Igor Dodon said, according to Sputnik.md,  that currently they examine the candidature of the socialist MP Victor Sorocean  for the post of ambassador in Minsk and  Permanent Representative of Moldova to the CIS statutory bodies.

The investigation of the Center for Investigative Journalism showed that the family of Victor Sorocean risked ending up in the street. The bank wherefrom he contracted a loan worth 1.5 million lei demanded all the money back. As the penalties were growing, family Sorocean was forced to give everything, including their house. Bank won the trial in court and did not want any delay, while the MP’s wife Svetlana Lagodenco, who was managing the company that took the loan, said that she did not sign any guarantee agreement. In turn, the woman sued the bank for forged documents.

Sorocean was not MP when he took the loan from Bank Sociala. In the statement submitted to the CEC for the parliamentary elections dated November 30, 2014, he said that  between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2013, together with the family lived on a salary of 8.584 lei from the activity of manager of  Europromex company,   pension worth  47 772 and other 36.506 lei gained concurrently. He did not report any debt to the bank. Later, in his property statement submitted after he became MP, Sorocean declared a loan (mortgage) taken for a period of ten years (2007-2017) and a sum of 250,000 lei. Portal Moldova Curata wrote that Victor Sorocean, founder of the construction company SRL Nord Complex contributed with  a sum of 95.200 lei for the electoral fund of PSRM (Socialist Party in the Republic of Moldova).He was candidate on the lists of PSRM.

The 2015 income statement of the MP , the last one made public, points out that the family of Victor Sorocean contracted in 2007 a loan at an interest rate of 16% due  in 2017. The initial amount loaned by the couple was 250,000 lei.

Moldova Curata  wrote that after  he served as deputy mayor of Balti, in 1998, he was elected  MP on the list of the Communist Party in Moldova (Nb.10 on the electoral roll). He was MP in the Parliament for just one year. In October 1999, following some disagreements with the PCRM, he quitted the party and was appointed chief of the General Financial Directorate in town Balti. Also, in 1999 he ran for mayor of Balti, but ranked third, the first was the socialist Victor Morev. In parliamentary elections dated February 2001, the name of Victor Sorocean was on the lists of Edinstvo Electoral Bloc, which has not passed the election threshold.

Earlier Ziarul de Garda reported that Victor Sorocean was twice sentenced. First, on February 21, 1973, Balti Court ruled  two years of suspended sentence.  Two years later, on June 4, 1975, Court in Krivorojsk, Ukraine ruled 5 years of suspended sentence. In 2005, the name of Sorocean appeared in a criminal case initiated by the CCECC, the current National Anti-Corruption Center, for "abuse of power ". Sorocean admitted his problems from the past. “The case with National Anticorruption Center was closed, a road accident happened in ’70 and the 2005 case relates to my activity in the town. There were some problems, but nothing serious", he said, writes ZdG.