CHISINAU -- A Moldovan court has sentenced oligarch and former political tycoon Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison in a decade-old bank fraud case known as "the theft of the century."
In a ruling delivered by Chisinau's Buiucani Court on April 22, Plahotniuc, who was not present in the court room, was found guilty of bank fraud, organizing a criminal group, and money laundering in a long-running investigation into the disappearance of approximately $1 billion -- roughly 12 percent of the country's economic output -- from Moldovan banks in 2014.
Plahotniuc, 60, has denied any wrongdoing and described the case against him as political. His lawyer, Lucian Rogac, called the court ruling "illegal" and said it will be appealed.
"The entire process was conducted in a tremendous rush, with numerous violations of the defendant's rights," Rogac claimed.
The investigation found Plahotniuc received more than $43 million from companies controlled by another oligarch, Ilan Shor, who had previously fled to Russia and was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison.
In his final statement to the court on March 25, Plahotniuc claimed the case contained no evidence of an organized criminal group, adding Shor did not need his help to take control of the financial institutions Banca Sociala and Unibank, which also are involved in the case.
Prosecutors sought the maximum sentence for Plahotniuc, who is currently being held in a pretrial detention center in Chisinau, of up to 25 years in prison.
The former leader of Moldova's Democratic Party, Plahotniuc left the country in 2019, shortly before receiving a criminal summons from Moldovan prosecutors. In 2025, he was extradited to Chisinau from Greece, jolting the country just days before a tense general election already roiled by allegations of Russian interference.
In 2020, his US visa was revoked after then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared Plahotniuc's "corrupt actions undermined the rule of law and severely compromised the independence of democratic institutions in Moldova."
It was later revealed Plahotniuc had been living in Miami at the time of the announcement and applied for political asylum, according to a lawsuit he filed in US federal court. That asylum request was rejected.
In 2022, the US Treasury Department imposed additional financial sanctions on Plahotniuc and Shor, accusing them of "capturing and corrupting Moldova's political and economic institutions and…acting as instruments of Russia's global influence campaign."
The European Union and Britain also sanctioned Plahotniuc for destabilizing Moldovan politics.
