Moldova oligarch Plahotniuc sentenced to 19 years in $1B bank fraud case

A Moldovan oligarch and former opposition leader has been sentenced to 19 years in a fraud case in which a billion dollars stolen from banks in the country more than a decade ago.

The Buiucani District Court in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau, convicted Vladimir Plahotniuc on charges ranging from creating and participating in a criminal organization to fraud and money laundering.

Moldovan authorities allege that 60-year-old Plahotniuc was implicated in a $1 billion dollar bank theft from three Moldovan banks in 2014.

The sum was the equivalent of about an eighth of Moldova’s annual GDP at the time and plunged the country into turmoil.