Four Moldovan officials held for sabotaging Interpol red notices

5 months ago 20

Four interior ministry employees were arrested in in Moldova on Tuesday (4 June) in a vast operation to catch government officials sabotaging Interpol red notices.

US and French officers were involved in the operation that targeted 12 suspects and took place in 33 different locations in Moldova, France’s financial crimes prosecutor Jean-Francois Bohnert said in a statement.

The attempt at fraud by mostly Moldovan officials aimed at “obstructing Interpol’s issuance of red notices targeting wanted international fugitives” linked to organised crime, Bohnert said.

“A group of people of different nationalities is suspected of mounting a corruption scheme allowing wanted people to block or delete red notices targeting them, by paying bribes to public agents, especially in Moldova,” he added.

Those bribes amounted to “several million dollars”, Bohnert said.

Moldovan anti-corruption agents were assisted by FBI officers and those from the French financial prosecutors’ and anti-corruption offices.

Sources close to the operation said those targeted had links to organised crime and that all four people detained were Moldovans working for the interior ministry.

Security forces seized digital devices, documents and other objects for analysis, Bohnert said.

He said the French portion of the investigation began in August last year “based on information supplied by Interpol”, the international police force whose headquarters are in Lyon, southeast France.

In a separate statement, Interpol said it had detected “a small number of cases” in which attempts were made to “block and erase red notices”, leading it to launch internal measures and alert French authorities.

A joint investigation team was established in April between France and Moldova with help from the FBI.

Interpol said that a parallel cybercriminal investigation led by the United Kingdom had “revealed that some people in Moldova suspected of being corrupt could have sent information on red notices to wanted people”.

Juergen Stock, Interpol’s secretary general, said in the statement that the suspected fraud only concerned “a small number” of the organisation’s 70,000 red notices. Around 10,000 red notices are issued each year.

“We are determined to fight high-level corruption in all its forms, especially those schemes that endanger criminal cases around the world,” said Veronica Dragalin, head of Moldova’s anti-corruption prosecutor’s office.

“This joint investigation is proof that international cooperation… is essential in detecting and stopping corrupt criminals who are not limited by national borders.”

Moldova since June 2022 has been an official candidate to join the European Union and has vowed to fight corruption