August 11 (SeeNews) - Moldova's Victoriabank said that it is open to collaborating with authorities in an investigation related to its alleged involvement in a 2014 banking fraud in which about $1 billion (850 million euro) went missing from three of the country's private banks.
"In our opinion, Victoriabank in its current form and after the transformation started in 2018 has nothing to do with the case investigated by the authorities. To demonstrate this, Victoriabank is working with the authorities and awaits the next steps in the process," the lender said in a statement on Monday in response to media reports saying that prosecutors plan to seize assets of the bank as part of the ongoing investigation.
Its international shareholders - Romania-based financial group Banca Transilvania (BT) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), as well as local ones, including Victoriabank founders, are unpleasantly surprised by the situation and consider that recent actions pose a threat to financial and banking stability and put an obstacle to Moldova's development, Victoriabank said.
BT and the EBRD will resort to all legal means to protect Victoriabank, according to the statement issued shortly after local media published a document saying that a Moldovan court has granted a prosecutors’ request to seize Victoriabank's assets worth around 2.3 billion Moldovan lei ($138 million/118 million euro).
Local new portal deschide.md reported on Monday that prosecutors are planning to seize cars, real estate and government securities owned by Victoriabank in order to cover the prejudice caused by criminal deeds related to the 2014 banking fraud.
The general prosecutor's office said in a statement on August 5 that it is still investigating the banking fraud and will disclose further information when possible. The prosecutors did not name any persons or companies being investigated.
Since 2018, Banca Transilvania - Romania's largest bank by assets as at the end of 2019, and EBRD hold 72.19% of the share capital of Victoriabank among themselves. The remainder is owned by four individuals - Victor Turcan, Valentina Turcan, Elena Artemenco and Galina Proidisvet, according to data published on the website of Victoriabank.
Victoriabank is Moldova's third largest lender by assets, central bank data for end-June 2020 showed. The lender says that it has over 270,000 active clients and 100 subsidiaries across the country.
Moldova is still trying to recover from a massive banking fraud of 2014, when lenders Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank collapsed and were liquidated.
(1 euro=19.6183 Moldovan lei)
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