Moldovan Consul in Odessa, convicted of passive corruption
The Consul of the Republic of Moldova in Odessa was definitively convicted of passive corruption, after the Supreme Court of Justice rejected, on February 13, 2025, the appeals filed by the defence. The decision upholds the decision of the Chisinau Court of Appeal of September 20, 2023, by which the former diplomat was fined 75,000 lei and was banned from holding public office for three years. He also received a one-year prison sentence for determining to falsify official documents but he was released from criminal liability due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
The visa case concerns events from 2018, when the consul applied a long-stay visa to the passport of an Egyptian citizen in exchange for a sum of money, without the applicant being present at the Consulate. To cover up the illegality, the intermediaries falsified the visa application form.
The investigations, conducted between 2018 and 2019, led to the prosecution of all those involved. The intermediaries were sentenced to prison terms of 5 and 4 years, suspended conditionally for a 3-year probationary period, and fines of 150,000 lei each.
The visa beneficiary pleaded guilty and was sentenced separately.
According to the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, this was one of the few cases in which, based on operational information, all participants in the commission of corruption crimes were successfully held criminally liable, including the visa beneficiary, the two intermediaries, and the consul.
