8-year prison sentence for ex-deputy minister accused of recruiting prosecutors for the Shor group
Former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Veaceslav Ceban, was sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in organizing the assassination of two prosecutors from the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office in 2020. Ceban, along with six other individuals, allegedly gathered information on behalf of the convicted Ilan Șor. Among the targeted prosecutors was a deputy prosecutor involved in investigating the "theft of the billion."
The sentence was pronounced by the Chisinau District Court.
According to the Prosecutor's Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Causes (PCCOCS), the group led by Ceban also collected information about other people who visited the PA, in connection with the case called "theft of the billion".
The judges found that in October 2020, Ceban equipped the six accomplices with special espionage equipment - encrypted applications and recording equipment, to track anti-corruption prosecutors. The purpose of the operation was to blackmail law enforcement officers investigating the cases of the Shor criminal organization.
The network operated according to a well-established scheme: five members collected information, the sixth analyzed it and compiled "information notes", and the leader, Veaceslav Ceban, transmitted it to the heads of the organization to be used in criminal activity, informs the PCCOCS.
The convict allegedly joined the criminal organization created by Șor in 2016, dealing with “recruiting and corrupting local elected officials, in order to have them join the “Șor” political party, and attracting deputies who had broken away from other political parties to collaborate”, after which he created and led his own criminal group specialized in collecting information about potential victims and the activity of law enforcement agencies.
The information collected was to be used “to prevent the complete, objective and comprehensive investigation” of the circumstances in which the large-scale bank fraud occurred, “preventing the establishment of the truth and the criminal prosecution of the responsible persons”, the court’s sentence reveals.
Veaceslav Ceban is to serve his sentence in a closed-type penitentiary.
The other members of this group - Mihail Frunza, Sergiu Meleca, Vitalie Munteanu, Valentin Corlăteanu, Vitalie Bazatin and Gheorghii Sîrbu, all former employees of the penitentiary system - were found guilty previously, but escaped criminal punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Veaceslav Ceban was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs in May 2013, following a proposal from the then-Minister, Dorin Recean. Prior to this role, he served as the interim head of the Department of Penitentiary Institutions within the Ministry of Justice from 2011 to 2013.
Born on October 31, 1971, in Cobusca Veche, Anenii Noi, Ceban has spent his entire career within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Throughout his tenure, he held several key positions, including heading the Anti-Drug Directorate, the Special Missions Directorate, and serving as the deputy director of the Center for Combating Human Trafficking.
Ceban's professional experience also encompasses roles within the Chisinau Police Inspectorate, the Centru Police Station, and the Special Guard Detachment.
