The government led by Valeriu Strelet voted for by liberal democrats, democrats and liberals, is made up of several new names, but which are not unaffiliated to politics. Most new-old ministers were featured in previous investigations of the Center for Investigative Journalism which revealed hidden interests and businesses run by their families.

Valeriu Streleț – Prime Minister

Valeriu Streleț has been an MP since 2009. Although he has been involved in politics for years, the premier also has run lucrative businesses and a part of his wealth acquired while he was in Parliament.

The politician is the sole owner of Bioprotect Ltd. The company specializes in the delivery of a range of services for agricultural producers. The company supplies products for plant protection, seeds, seed and planting material, personal protective equipment etc. During 2014 the company won three public tenders with a total value of almost 400,000 lei. During this period the company earned dividends of over four million lei.

In his income statement for 2014 Valeriu Streleț also indicated that his wife Aurelia Braguta holds 100% of shares in Universul Dezvoltarii Ltd carrying out several activities such as tourism, research and development in social and humanitarian sciences or trade. Aurelia Braga also holds another 5% at Mobil AB Construct Ltd, a company engaged, among others, in construction, trade and design. The other 95% belong to Anatol Braguta, brother in law of Valeriu Streleț. The latter two companies are registered at the same address on Miron Costin Street, an apartment belonging to Streleț family.

The candidate for prime minister owns two apartments and a house with an area of about 170 square meters put into operation in 2012, which is valued at over two million lei. The family of the liberal democrat also has three land plots: two in Chisinau with an area of about 1,000 square meters and another one in Truseni village of 600 square meters.

Valeriu Streleț also has two Volkswagen Touaregs. The one manufactured in 2014 is worth over 1.2 million lei, while the other from 2012 – more than one million lei. The third car is a Volkswagen Polo, manufactured in 2012 and purchased in 2014.

In the 2014 election campaign the MP gave the Liberal Democratic Party 1.1 million lei. However, the seven employees of Bioprotect Company were also generous. They donated 30,000, 40,000 and 50,000 lei.

In 2013, were made public several scandalous telephone conversations between Nicolae Vicol, head of Tax Inspectorate at that time (subsequently sentenced to six years in prison), and several officials. In one of them, Valeriu Streleț gave Nicolae Vicol instructions on a Tax Inspectorate employee. Back then the politician was the leader of LDP in Parliament.

Liberal ministers

Corina Fusu – Minister of Education

The new Minister of Education, Liberal MP Corina Fusu, graduated in Biology, but is known more as a journalist who worked in the field for over 30 years. In her income statement for 2014 she showed over 160,000 lei as her MP salary and an allowance of 13,000 lei. Fusu also owns 0,064 ha in Anenii-Noi and an apartment of 86 square meters with a cadastral value of nearly half a million lei.

Over the years, Fusu was somehow forgetting to indicate in her income statements a company where she owns 10% of shares. This is “Alfort-Prim” Ltd, registered in 1999 and no longer operational, but remained in the register of the State Registration Chamber. According to official data, the company dealt with the retail trade on fee or contract basis, market research and public opinion survey, brokerage for selling a wide assortment of goods etc. Moreover, the company has its premises right in the MP’s apartment on Academiei Str. in Chisinau.

Iurie Chirinciuc – Minister of Transport

Ministry of Transport and Road Infrastructure will be led by the current Liberal MP and businessman Iurie Chirinciuc. Former owner of the football club FC Costuleni (his native village) and chairman of the district Liberal Party organization at Ungheni, Chirinciuc can be rightly called one of the richest ministers. He has several businesses in Moldova and Romania. He lives in the capital with his wife and two children in a house with an area of 255 square meters, has a GX470 Lexus, manufactured in 2005, and owns three plots of land in Iasi, Romania. There he also owns an apartment of 76 square meters and three other real estate objects. Iurie Chirinciuc is the sole shareholder of “Moldacom Group Ltd” corporation, located in Iasi, specializing in furniture manufacturing and where last year he received an income of almost 39,000 Romanian lei.

The company is run by his wife Tamara Chirinciuc who in 2013, according to Ziarul de Garda, was sentenced to eight months of probation in Romania for the fact that she had purchased furniture from San Marino and sold it in Estonia, without paying customs duties.

The liberal also owns shares in other five Moldovan companies, two of which deal with processing and preservation of fruit and vegetables, and other two – with furniture manufacturing, all based in Ungheni. Besides his salary obtained from Moldacom Group company, the liberal also indicates in his income statement an amount of over 52,000 lei, obtained from Rovigo Ltd, the company he run within 1998-2013, according to his resume. Moreover, the politician is the founder and former president of the Association of Furniture Producers in Moldova.

Anatol Salaru – Minister of Defense

Anatol Salaru, former minister of transport in 2009-2013, was appointed head of the Defense. According to the income statement for the last year, the liberal owns two apartments in Chisinau, of 55 and, respectively, 39 square meters, three agricultural plots, a bank deposit in the amount of 30,000 euros and drives a Mercedes manufactured in 1996. His wife, Carolina Salaru, owns FoodStock Ltd, based in Bucharest and an apartment of 186 square meters in the Romanian capital, where the whole family is established.

Over the years, Anatol Salaru held several positions in the financial group Ascom-Group of the billionaire Anatol Stati, being director of the Representative office in Turkmenistan (1997-1999) and Iraq (2003-2008).

His name is linked to “Refurbished European trains” scandal from Moldovan Railroads. More specifically, in 2012, when he was minister, was signed a contract of over 12 million euro with RMAR company from Pascani, Romania for complete renovation of five trains, however the trains were broken shortly after they had been upgraded. A criminal case was opened and closed shortly, for lack of evidence.

Valeriu Munteanu – Minister of Environment

Valeriu Munteanu, vice-president of the Liberal Party, holds a degree in law and prior becoming an MP in 2009 he was project manager within various civic associations, but also mayor in his native village, Floreni, Anenii-Noi (2007).

Last year he had an income of over 150,000 lei from MP wages and nearly 116,000 lei from allowances. The liberal has a house in Floreni, with an area of 220 square meters.

Gheorghe Brega – deputy prime minister

The new deputy prime minister for social issues is the current liberal MP Gheorghe Brega. For many years he worked in the Oncological Institute, and in 2009 decided to engage in politics, becoming MP on the LP list. In 2014, Brega had a salary of over 155,000 lei as a parliamentarian, and another 100,000 were obtained from allowances and pensions. The MP owns land outside Criuleni, Dubasari, an apartment of 78 square meters, a garage and an Opel Astra manufactured in 1998.

Brega’s name is related to a scandal on the pharmaceutical market, recalls moldovacurata.md. Thus, in summer 2012 the MP accused the Romanian pharmaceutical company Balkan Pharmaceuticals of producing poor quality drugs, favoritism in registration of its medicines and winning tenders for the purchase of drugs by state medical institutions, although proposing higher prices. The Romanian company said that MPs accusations are unfounded, implying that Brega himself would have interests on the pharmaceutical market and protect certain pharmaceutical companies.

Democrat Ministers

Ruxanda Glavan – Minister of Health

Ruxandra Glavan comes to administration of the Ministry of Health from the chair of the Minister of Labour, Social Protection and Family, the post held until 18 February 2015. Until then, she was deputy minister in the same institution for two years. With medical degree and an MBA at Grenoble University, France, she gave up her career as a doctor and launched herself in business.

Between 2006-2013, Ruxandra Glavan was director of Glavirux Ltd specializing in the import and distribution of medical equipment, pharmaceutical drugs, cosmetics and personal hygiene products. The company came to public attention when the lawyer Ana Ursachi accused Glavan in 2013 that she would was involved in a scheme for smuggling blood glucose measurement devices to Moscow, Russia.

Although she is no longer managing the business, Ruxandra Glavan remains the sole shareholder of the company. According to the Public Procurement Agency, from 2012 up till now, Glavirux Ltd concluded at least 120 public procurement contracts, providing equipment and medical tests to medical institutions throughout Moldova, in amounts from a few tens to a few hundred thousand lei. Among them are three contracts and three additional price increase contracts concluded with the Center Medical Association in Chisinau, whose chief is the mother of Ruxanda Glavan, Adela Glavan.

Ruxanda Glavan lives with her husband Aureliu Cincilei, vice-governor of the National Bank of Moldova, in a luxury villa in Riscani sector of Chisinau. The house with a total area of 349 square meters is estimated to be worth nine million lei according to real estate experts. According to the income statement for 2013, the spouses also have a house, two apartments, two cars, a Toyota and Lexus, three plots of land and 16 bank accounts.

In 2014, the National Integrity Commission decided to initiate a control on Aureliu Cincilei for the infringement of income and property declaration system for 2013 and in May that year NIC found that he had not included in the income statement several cars and 30 bank accounts held jointly with his wife. However, NIC decided to close the case, on the grounds of “no deliberate infringement.”