Anti-corruption prosecutor Mihai Ivanov and two National Anti Corruption (NAC) criminal investigation officers could be criminally investigated for coercion to recognize a crime. The parties who consider themselves victims are two prosecutors from the Ciocana district prosecution office, namely Roman Clim and Eugen Tifoi. Both of them were investigated and accused in a case of extortion of bribes in the amount of 200.000,00 thousand euros from two businessmen. Mihai Ivanov assumes that this case was ordered by the Deputy Prosecutor General, Ruslan Popov, who would like to acquit and cover up for his former subordinates (Mr Popov was the head of the Ciocana district).
Prosecutors from of the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS) descended on Friday 22 May, in the offices of prosecutor Mihai Ivanov and two criminal investigation officers. Prosecutors from PCCOCS seized two computers. Mihai Ivanov is on sick leave and was not present during the search.
Sources from the General Prosecutor’s Office informed us that Mihai Ivanov and the two criminal investigation officers from NAC are accused of having put psychological pressure on Clim and Tifoi to admit their guilt.
Asked by reporters of the www.anticorruption.md portal, Mihai Ivanov told us that he knew about such a case, but he did not have a procedural status. “I did not commit any illegality, I did my job honestly, I have nothing to fear,” Ivanov told us.
Mihai Ivanov also expressed his opinion that the case could be ordered by Ruslan Popov to acquit his former subordinates and punish the suspicions of corruption against him. “I lead the investigations in this case until December 2019, and when the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office carried out the so-called control in November and December 2019 at the request of Alexandr Stoianoglo, this case was taken from me and I don’t know anything about its fate,” Ivanov said.
A few days before he was removed from the head of the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office, Viorel Morari officially informed Stoianoglo about Ruslan Popov’s alleged involvement in the 200,000-euro bribe case. Morari told the attorney general that during the investigation it was found that Tifoi and Clim allegedly had several phone conversations with Ruslan Popov on the day of the bribe’s extortion, on Sunday, and one of them even went to Milestii Mici, where Popov lives.
The investigation of Clim and Tifoi, which also includes three other police officers, was filed in 2017. The five allegedly demanded different amounts of money from the administrator of a company, in order to release him from detention and end the criminal case, in which the businessman, was investigation along with two other colleagues, for tax evasion. After part of the money was transferred, the three businessmen were released and some of the objects and documents seized during the search were returned to them. Subsequently, the prosecutors allegedly asked the three businessmen to admit the crime of forgery in public documents.
In December 2018, the first accused in the above case was convicted. Valentin Samoil, former deputy head of the National Investigation Inspectorate, admitted his guilt and was fined 90,000 lei for trafficking in influence.
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