The conviction of the once-powerful former tycoon Vladimir Plahotniuc is proof that Moldova’s judicial reform is providing results. The next test is making sure the system doesn’t drift back.
Iulian Groza
For more than a decade, Vladimir Plahotniuc was Moldova’s dominant oligarch. The European Union, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom all imposed sanctions on him for corruption and for undermining democratic institutions and the rule of law in Moldova.
Many international observers, including the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, have described state capture, marked by significant influence over public institutions, including the justice system.
Plahotniuc fled the country in mid-2019 amid criminal investigations. He was detained at a Greek airport in 2025 under a false identity, then brought back to Moldova. After more than six months of hearings on one of five criminal cases against him, a court sentenced Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison.
The bench was a specialised anti-corruption panel of judges who have either passed integrity vetting or are still going through it.
The conviction relates to running a criminal organisation, money laundering and the so-called “$1 billion bank fraud”, a grand theft that wiped out roughly one-eighth of Moldova’s GDP at the time. The ruling runs to over 600 pages. The verdict is not final and may be appealed.
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