Moldovan billionaire Vladimir Plahotniuc has been sentenced to 19 years in prison
Verdict in the Plahotniuc case
A court in Chisinau has sentenced the former leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova and billionaire Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison. This was reported by the local publication NewsMaker.md.
The businessman was found guilty of bank fraud, organising a criminal group and money laundering. Specifically, this involves complicity in the theft of $1 billion from three Moldovan banks.
Investigators believe that he received $39 million and €3.5 million of the stolen funds through companies controlled by Ilan Shor, who has fled the country.
The prosecution had sought a 25-year prison sentence for Plahotniuc. He himself maintained his innocence. His lawyer, Lucian Rogac, has already stated that the defence will appeal the verdict and believes that the trial was marred by numerous violations.
According to the court’s ruling, Volodymyr Plakhotnyuk has also been barred from holding certain public offices for five years. He must pay the state approximately $60 million.
Prosecutors had sought a 25-year prison sentence for him, comprising 15 years for fraud and 10 years for money laundering on a particularly large scale. As noted by MOLDPRES, this is the maximum possible sentence for the aggregate of offences of which the oligarch stands accused.
The prosecution also requested the confiscation of Plahotniuc’s assets to compensate for damages and cover the costs associated with the businessman’s extradition from Greece.
The defence demanded that he be found not guilty. Lawyer Lucian Rogac claimed that the trial had been conducted too hastily, and that there were errors in the calculations within the case file amounting to millions of euros.
“I am no saint, but I did not take part in the theft of a billion,” Plahotniuc said at the last court hearing on 25 March.
Who is Plahotniuc and what is he accused of?
Vladimir Plahotniuc was involved in Moldovan politics in the 2010s. From 2010 to 2015, he was a member of parliament for the Democratic Party, and in 2016 he became its leader.
The media referred to him as the “Moldovan Abramovich”, the “de facto ruler” and the “master of Moldova”. By the mid-2010s, Plahotniuc controlled Moldova’s banks, media, security forces and courts.
In 2019, the Democratic Party came third in the parliamentary elections and did not join the new coalition, after which Plahotniuc left Moldova.
That same year, he became a defendant in a criminal case in Moldova concerning money laundering on a particularly large scale. In 2020, he was charged in absentia in a case involving the theft of $1 billion from the country’s banking system.
The disappearance of funds from three banks – Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank – came to light in late November 2014.
In 2020, the Moldovan Prosecutor General’s Office stated that Plahotniuc was one of the beneficiaries of the theft and received 39 million US dollars and 3.5 million euros through companies controlled by Ilan Shor. Shor was sentenced in absentia to 15 years’ imprisonment in the same case.
Criminal cases against Plahotniuc have been opened not only in Moldova but also in Russia. The Russian authorities suspect him of organising a criminal group, smuggling, illegal drug trafficking, illegally transferring money out of the country and attempted murder. In Russia, the oligarch was arrested in absentia.
From fleeing to the US to 17 passports at a villa in Greece
Vladimir Plahotniuc was detained in Greece on 22 July 2025. On 25 September, he was extradited to Moldova. Since then, he has been held in custody in a prison in Chișinău.
Along with Plahotniuc, his associate Constantin Tsutsa was also detained in Greece. In January 2026, a court in Moldova sentenced him to eight years’ imprisonment in a case involving illicit enrichment and influence peddling.
Little is known for certain about Plahotniuc’s life since his departure from Moldova in 2019 and his arrest in Greece in 2025.
Initially, the Democratic Party of Moldova reported that its founder had flown to Switzerland to visit his family “for a few days”.
According to the Moldovan publication NOI, before Plahotniuc left the country, he was visited by the US Ambassador to Chisinau, Derek Hogan. The publication claimed that the oligarch crossed the border into self-proclaimed Transnistria without being checked, then into Ukraine, and from there flew to Miami.
In the US, Plahotniuc sought political asylum, but his application was rejected. In early 2020, he was barred from entering the US, and in 2022, sanctions were imposed against him. A year later, Plahotniuc also fell under European Union sanctions.
After leaving the US, he was reportedly living in Turkey or Northern Cyprus, according to media reports. There were also rumours that Plahotniuc had attempted to obtain Turkish citizenship in addition to his Moldovan, Romanian and Ukrainian passports, but the Turkish authorities refused his application.
When Plahotniuc and Tsutsa were arrested in Greece, law enforcement officers found 17 passports and identity cards in Plahotniuc’s name at their villa south of Athens, including forged Greek documents.
Greek police believe that between 2023 and 2025, the oligarch visited 22 countries.
Extradition from Greece
He and Tsuts were detained whilst attempting to fly to Dubai. According to Greek media reports, they had planned to use Bulgarian documents for the trip.
Vladimir Plahotniuc was detained at Athens airport on 21 July as he attempted to board a flight to Dubai. Greek police acted on the basis of an Interpol notice.
On 25 September, Plahotniuc was extradited to Moldova following several months of legal proceedings. He is one of the key figures in the case of the so-called ‘theft of the century’, namely the disappearance of $1 billion from the Moldovan banking system in 2013. This sum amounted to around 12 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. In the same case, Ilan Shor, who is in hiding in Russia, has been sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.
Through the so-called “Moldovan laundromat”, a money-laundering scheme involving banks in Russia, Moldova and the Baltic states, around $22 billion was transferred out of Russia. These funds passed through Moldovan state institutions controlled by Plahotniuc, who at the time held the post of Deputy Speaker of the country’s parliament.
On Tuesday, 21 April, the Council of the European Union extended sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for destabilising, undermining or threatening the sovereignty and independence of Moldova. Vladimir Plahotniuc is among those subject to these restrictions.
