In 2017, the leader of the pro-Russian Shor party, Ilan Shor, was sentenced in Moldova to seven and a half years in prison for fraud and money laundering as part of the largest banking scandal in the country’s history. The oligarch filed an appeal, and in 2019 he left Moldova. In April 2023, the Appeals Chamber issued a final verdict: Shore received 15 years in prison in absentia.
Two months later, the Moldovan authorities declared the Shor party unconstitutional: its deputies retained their mandates, but lost the right to join other parties.
Last April, at a congress of Moldovan opposition deputies held in Moscow, advocating the country’s entry into the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the development of relations with Russia, Ilan Shor announced the creation of the “Victory” political bloc.
Money for last year’s investment program of Ilan Shor in Moldova was given by a citizen of Israel and Russia, Igal (Igor) Shved. He lied to inspectors about the origin of the funds
In August 2023, on the eve of the general elections, Ilan Shor announced that he was launching the “Moldovan Village” program, under which over the next three years each city hall would receive 20 million lei (about $1.1 million) through his Visul meu foundation ( "My dream").
A month later, several city halls signed sponsorship contracts, but not with the Shor Foundation, but with 61-year-old Israeli citizen Igal Shved. The Information and Security Service (ISS) found out that Shved’s money came from Russia, and he himself has a Russian passport.
As RISE Moldova found out, when the Swede withdrew money to Moldova, the country’s authorities demanded to justify the origin of the funds. He submitted an income tax return from Russia, according to which he earned more than $54 million in 2018 as a result of the liquidation of a British company. Controllers determined that the document was fake.
According to the ISS, in June 2023, Igal Shved’s accounts in Kazakhstan received 95 million rubles (approximately a million euros) in the form of a loan and transfers from the Kazakh Eurasian Bank from Moldovan Viktor Gutsulyak, who also has Russian citizenship.
Victor Gutsulyak, from whom Shved received funds, previously worked in Moldovan law enforcement agencies, and now lives in Russia
RISE Moldova found out that Victor Gutsulyak built a career in Moldovan law enforcement agencies. From 2006 to 2012, he worked at the Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (now the National Anti-Corruption Center), the Main Directorate for Combating Economic Crime, the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Customs Service. In May 2020, he became an inspector in the Integrity Department of the Moldova Football Federation, but left the position less than a year later.
According to the ISS, in 2021, the Service for the Prevention and Combating of Money Laundering suspected Gutsulyak of laundering funds in the interests of a criminal group led by Ilan Shor: his account received 166 million rubles (about two million euros) from Anastasia Dronova, involved in the “Russian oligarchic groups associated with high-ranking officials in Moscow."
Gutsulyak left Moldova in the second half of 2022, now he heads the “Light the Light” charitable foundation in Moscow for people with disabilities.
According to RISE Moldova, after Shved’s funds were seized, Ilan Shor began using couriers who transport cash to withdraw money to Moldova
According to RISE Moldova, in January 2024, the Information and Security Service added Igor Shved to the list of people proven to be associated with Ilan Shor. The funds intended for the “Moldavian Village” project were seized, and the mayor’s office terminated sponsorship contracts with it.
Journalists learned that to finance his projects, Shor now uses the services of couriers who deliver cash from Russia to Moldova. A month ago, at the Chisinau airport, about twenty million lei (approximately $1.1 million) were confiscated from people who came from Moscow, where they participated in an event by Shor’s political bloc “Victory”. In mid-May, employees of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime seized another approximately 2.3 million lei (about $130 thousand) from 50 couriers.