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Sursa foto: life.ru

Another 660 thousand euro of the stolen billion, spent by Shor for a luxury vacation on the Cote d’Azur

Three months before the final blow in the theft of the century, Ilan Shor spent 430 thousand euro for the rent of a villa on the Cote d’Azur. He indulged there his family and friends. He made also other collateral expenses, of 230 thousand euro, for the rent of yacht and luxury cars. The sums originated from the fraudulent loans that led to the bankruptcy of those three banks led by Shor, and later became the public debt. That blow costs the citizens of the Republic of Moldova 25 billion lei.

For the rent of this villa on the French Riviera, where the family of the former banker and his friends spent a splendid vacation in August 2014, there were paid 430 thousand euro.

As usual, the wife of Ilan Shor, Sara, who sings with the scenic pseudonym Jasmin, published on the social networking sites the photos of the family vacation spent in a villa located on the peninsula of Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, one of the pearls of the Cote d’Azur. The photos and videos from the same ultra-luxury vacation home published on Internet the VIPs from Russia, the friends of Shor family – fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin, his wife and daughter, wife of the former presidential advisor Vladimir Kojin and wife of businessman Alexandr Dostman, well-known in the Russian showbiz world. The program of vacation included a Moldavian-style party conducted in this villa. Besides the décor in the colours of tricolour and, probably, the cabbage rolls, the guests had the possibility to enjoy the performance of a popular dance band. The real estate on the Côte d’Azur, rented by Shor in August 2014, consists of a building with the area of over 700 square metres, located on the seashore. Besides several rooms overloaded with luxury décor objects, the villa has six bedrooms, all with sea view. It also has two swimming pools. The wife of the former Kremlin adviser, Vladimir Kojin, published also a video with a comment, in which she wishes to the virtual friends a beautiful Sunday morning.

The villa has also several terraces arranged for maximum comfort. There is even a funicular that links the terraces to the pools and leads up to a private beach. The property is on the list of offers of several real estate agencies specializing in the sale and renting of luxury houses on the French Riviera.

According to information provided by some real estate agents contacted by the reporter of Jurnal TV, who presented himself as a potential client, the renting of this property for August costs between 380 and 450 thousand euro. Depending on the requested services. Ilan Shor paid 430 thousand, equivalent to eight and a half million at the current exchange rate. This is perfectly visible in the bank statements of one of the companies of the former banker involved in the “theft of the century” – the non-resident Hezburg LLP.

This company began to transfer money for the villa in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat on July 11th, 2014. The first payment - 85 thousand euro. After four days, another 80 thousand. Another 100 thousand - on July 21st and another 80 thousand - on July 25th. Plus, 50 thousand euro on July 29th, and on August 1st, 2014, when was made another transfer of 35 thousand euro for the rent of the same villa, the total amount increased to 430 thousand euro.

The bank turnovers of the company Hezburg, in which all these payments equivalent in total to eight and a half million lei could be seen without a magnifying glass, were made public by the lawyer Ion Cretu, the defender of Veaceslav Platon, one of the convicted persons in the case of the theft of billion. At the same time, the lawyer presented also to the reporter of Jurnal TV the extracts from the accounts of other companies involved in the bank fraud, the documents that prove that money for villa originated from the companies of Ilan Shor involved in the scheme of the “theft of billion”.

Some companies that took the loans from Banca de Economii, Banca Socială and Unibank and others that laundered this money through numerous transfers in order to make it harder to trace them. The luxurious villa in France, where Ilan Shor, his family and friends rested in August 2014, was paid with money originated from the loans that in November 2014 caused bankruptcy of the state bank and two other financial institutions that were then controlled by the current mayor of Orhei.

Those six transfers that formed together the payment of 430 thousand euro for the villa in France, passed a complex circuit through the accounts of several companies of Shor. We will present also some examples. Let’s look which was the way of money from the first tranche – the transfer of 85 thousand euro of July 11th, 2014. The amount that went to the real estate agency was transferred to the account of Hezburg from Formisold LLP. Here, money came from Biro Media SRL, the company recognized by Shor as his and specified in the report of the international investigators of Kroll. The LLC, in its turn, received money from two loans from Banca de Economii, over 65 million lei, converted to almost three and a half million euro.

In the consecutive order, the things were in the following order: On the 7th and 8th of July 2014, Shor removes from Banca de Economii, in the form of loan for his company Biro Media, 32,6 and accordingly 32,7 million lei, respectively. Money is converted into 3,4 million euro and is sent to Formisold LLP. Herefrom, on July 11th, 85 thousand euro are sent to Hezburg LLP, and this company transfers the first tranche for the villa in France.

Perhaps the most notable example of all 6 transfers made for the rent of the villa that firmed the sum of 430 thousand euro, is the second. Even if it is a smaller tranche and originates from a smaller bank loan. According to the extracts from the accounts of several companies involved in the circuit, 80 thousand euro transferred by Hezburg for the villa in France on July 15th, 2014 came from a loan of one million euro granted by BEM, four days earlier, on July 11th, to the company recognized as his by Shor, Alvaro Grup SRL.

The route was as follows: Alvaro sent the whole million euro from BEM to Hostas Level LLP the same day it received the loan. In three days, on July 14th, out of the total sum of one million there were taken out 80 thousand and sent to Welentas LP. From here, money was transferred on the same day via Formisold LLP, in order to reach finally the accounts of Hezburg. On July 15th, money is transferred in the form of the second payment for the rent of the luxurious villa where rested Ilan Shor.

We will explain why we considered it necessary to emphasize this transfer, after we make a specification. In the statements made within the criminal file on bank fraud, more precisely, in the proceedings against Vladimir Filat and Chiril Lucinschi, Shor gave many examples showing how he took money from the banks through loans and how the sums were passed through several companies until reach the final destinations. One of the loans mentioned by Shor is precisely the loan of one million euro received by his company Alvaro from BEM on July 11th, widely deciphered in the file of Filat.

In the statements filed in the court, the unsuccessful banker declared that a million of euro received by his company Alvaro from BEM on July 11th, 2017, the same we talked about above, and from which originated the second tranche of money for the rent of the villa on Cote d’Azur, was sent to Hostas Level. From there, 416 thousand went to Bannyster LLP. From here, approximately the same amount was transferred to Norske Plant LP. From the accounts of this company, there were made two transfers to the account in Unibank of the citizen of the Russian Federation, Irina Alexandrova. 135 thousand euro – on July 11th and about 281 thousand - on July 14th. Totally, 416 thousand euro, about which Shor said that the Russian would have given it to Vladimir Filat. After a journalistic investigation in which it was proved that Irina Alexandrova and other people about whom Shor declared that they had sent money to Filat, never stepped on the Moldavian lands and that she had no idea about the transactions involving her name, this cause of accusation was dismissed by the Court of Appeal. Even if, in the first instance, Filat was already condemned for that, on the basis of the statements of Shor.

If we compare the way of money described by Shor, that according to him, would have reached Filat with the help of the Russian Alexandrova, with those of the transfer number two, for the rent of the villa in France, we observe how the sources of the same loan were bifurcated. However, the ramification is more complex, because only from this loan of one million remain over 500 thousand euro, the destination of which should be determined by the prosecutors that affirm that they are looking for the stolen money and the beneficiaries. If we compare those two transfers, we see that the second payment for the villa in France was made from the same loan, from which the former banker said he would have paid the bribe to Vladimir Filat.

The vacation of Shor in August 2014 required also other expenses in addition to 430 thousand euro for the rent of villa. The photos published on internet show that the family took the boat ride, celebrated the birthday of the son of the wife of Shor (from another marriage) in a luxury hotel in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat and spent time including in Monaco, in Monte Carlo city, located about 15 kilometers from the rented villa. And in the bank statements of the company Hezburg there are other payments that may be related to the same vacation. Approximately 115 thousand euro, in two tranches, for the yacht. 31 thousand euro – for the rent of luxury cars.

Further 52 thousand were transferred for the rent of another villa, on the Cote d’Azur, and more than 31 thousand were paid to a travel agency in Paris. In this way, to the cost of the vacation of August 2014, in addition to 430 thousand euro for the rent of the villa, are added approximately 230 thousand euro, spent through the company Hezburg LLP. This money also originated from the LLCs of the convicted in the first instance, Ilan Shor, the companies that took money from those three frauded banks until they were completely emptied in November 2014.

For example, the trace of money paid for the yacht leads to a loan of one million 200 thousand euro, taken from Banca de Economii through the company from the group of Shor Dracard SRL. A company that finally remained indebted to Banca de Economii nearly three billion lei. The transfers for the travel agency lead to a loan of about 2,4 million lei granted by Unibank to the LLC, controlled by Shor, Contrade. And money for luxury cars originated from the accounts of Banca Socială of the company Davema Com.

All these three LLCs participated in the final stage of the bank fraud when on November 25th and 26th, 2014, the portfolio of the loans in the amount of 13 billion lei was moved from BEM to Banca Socială in order to be transferred then to the offshore Fortuna United, which was previously shown by us to have been created by the fiduciaries of the oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc. The name of the companies was revealed in the Kroll reports.

In total, 660 thousand euro, the sum constituted by the payments listed so far, made through the company Hezburg, means the equivalent of almost 13 million lei. The only business declared by Ilan Shor over the years is a Moldavian company the purchase value of which does not rise to 200 thousand lei, according to the income declarations submitted by the mayor of Orhei. The whole business declared by Shor, who claims to be a successful businessman, is worth 64 times less than the expenses for that vacation of August 2014.

Only for the rent of the villa, Shor would have had 42 such businesses and to sell them all. The value of the assets of Shor seized in the bank fraud case amounts to about 60 million. It results that man allowed himself to spend in a vacation more than 20 percent of the value of the assets, which the state could recover from him in the event of the final conviction in the bank fraud case.

After many days of searches, we managed to meet Ilan Shor in order to ask for his reaction. As usual, he at lightning speed came by our reporter, and instead of answering, he mumbled something about the funding sources of Jurnal TV.

After the decision of the authorities to put the theft on shoulders of the citizens, the Moldavians have to pay 25 billion lei in the next two decades. This figure contains also the double invoice for the vacation spent by Ilan Shor, his family and friends on the French Riviera in August 2014. There are also good for payment the Moldavians for whom survival depends even on the saving of a lei made in social stores opened by the convicted for electoral purposes. Including those who crowd at the events of Ilan Shor for a sauce pan of buckwheat, with or without meat. Including those Moldavians forced by hunger to rummage to the last piece of bread in the boxes that were emptied faster than the organizers expected.

In the next editions of Jurnalul Săptămânii we will present also the information about other vacations spent by Ilan Shor, his family and friends, the bill for which was presented to Moldavians.

We specify that according to investigations carried out by the international agency Kroll, hired by the National Bank to investigate the bank fraud and the possibilities of the recovery of stolen money, Ilan Shor played a major role in the realization of the fraudulent scheme. His part consisted in the taking of control of three banks, one of which is of state, and their subsequent devaluation through the non-performing loans. The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office that manages the bank fraud case did not submit in the court sufficient evidence in order to prove that Ilan Shor benefited personally from a part of stolen money, even if this is clearly visible in the extracts from the accounts of his companies, the documents that investigators have at their disposal and use them in other cases. And because the accusers did not present the evidence that will condemn Shor, the court would have believed the statements made by the accused that he had not personally benefited from any leu stolen from BEM.

Consequently, instead of being convicted of fraud, as was the accusation, Shor was convicted for causing of damages. This requalification of accusation means a lot. On the one hand - a much milder punishment, and on the other – the possibility of an eventual amnesty, which would have been impossible in the case of a conviction for fraud in particularly large proportions. We have sent previously an inquiry to the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, in which we asked why prosecutors did not use the concrete evidence from the turnovers of the company Hezburg in order to argue the conviction of fraud. In an answer, the head of the institution, Viorel Morari, informs that these evidences constitute the subject of the conviction on the criminal case in the name of Shor that is at the trial at the Court of Appeal. It is unclear whether the prosecutor refers to the fact that these evidences would have transfer to his subordinates during the period of examination in the first instance, or that they were used then but without effect on the judges.

There are many questions that remain unanswered by the prosecutors. We are interested, for example, why he was not indicted for false denunciation, after it was found that statements of Shor about the bribery of Filat through the Russians do not correspond to the truth? Or are they going to do it in the next two years? For that namely so much remains until the expiration of the limitation period for this offence.

Another question would be on what grounds the prosecutors consider to be truthful the other statements made by Shor in the episodes of the case of “bank fraud”, considering that namely on the statements of Shor are based the majority of the convictions so far. We sent these questions through the press office of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office and if we receive an answer we will present it in the following editions.

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