Moldova asks U.S. to extradite tycoon Plahotniuc over $1 billion theft
According to Reuters, Moldova said on Tuesday it had asked the United States to extradite Vladimir Plahotniuc, a business tycoon charged in his native country with involvement in the theft of $1 billion from banks in 2014-2015.
Plahotniuc, one of Moldova’s richest people, was highly influential in politics, leading the Democratic Party and serving three times as a member of parliament, before moving to the United States last year after the party lost power in an election.
Last month, Prosecutor General Alexander Stoeanoglo said he had charged Plahotniuc with creation of an organised criminal group, extortion and fraud.
Representatives for Plahotniuc were unavailable for comment but his lawyers last year denied that he had been involved in an affair known locally as the “theft of the century”, in which the equivalent of an eighth of the impoverished country’s annual output was stolen from three of its largest banks.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Plahotniuc’s actions undermined the rule of law and “severely compromised the independence of democratic institutions in Moldova”.
A U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman declined to comment on the extradition request.
Azerbaijan hosts World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue
01 May 2024 / 13:38
63 people detained during Tbilisi protest
01 May 2024 / 13:32
Armenia’s Pashinyan spills water on his desk, clothes to explain what he is doing in Tavush Province
30 April 2024 / 13:25
Armenia, Azerbaijan FMs to meet in Kazakhstan
29 April 2024 / 13:40
Aram I: Mr. Erdogan, our ancestors were massacred by your ancestors, don't try to oppose diaspora to Armenia
24 April 2024 / 14:20
Azerbaijan and Armenia start border delimitation process
23 April 2024 / 11:38
Armenia premier: Our society asks why we continue to be member state of CSTO?
23 April 2024 / 11:30
Ilham Aliyev on his way to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin
22 April 2024 / 10:39
German Foreign Ministry reacts to agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan on border delimitation
22 April 2024 / 10:32
Is Pashinyan going to attend Putin's inauguration?
17 April 2024 / 14:40
Russian peacekeepers’ pulling out from Nagorno-Karabakh has begun, Kremlin confirms
17 April 2024 / 14:34
Tokayev: Kazakhstan ready to offer platform for Armenia-Azerbaijan negotiations
15 April 2024 / 13:37
U.S. refuses to join Israel in retaliatory action against Iran
15 April 2024 / 11:33
Olivier Decottignies: France is providing Armenia military gear everyone’s desperate to get
09 April 2024 / 13:58
Ruben Vardanyan nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
08 April 2024 / 13:48