In February 2025, Interpol issued an international arrest warrant for fugitive Moldovan billionaire Vladimir Plahotniuc. Earlier today, he was escorted from Athens to Chișinău. Justice Minister Veronica Mihailov-Moraru stated that Plahotniuc will be immediately placed in a solitary cell in Prison No. 13.
Plahotniuc was detained on July 22 at Athens airport while attempting to fly to Dubai. Authorities seized 21 passports and identity documents allegedly issued by the governments of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Iraq, and Vanuatu. Former Moldovan MP Constantin Țuțu, who was also detained, had five forged documents in his possession.
The Moldovan Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against Plahotniuc in three cases, including the theft of $1 billion from the country’s banking system in 2014. According to investigators, Plahotniuc received $39 million and €3.5 million of that larger sum through entities connected with fellow fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, who currently resides in Russia.
As The Insider found, after fleeing Moldova in 2019 Plahotniuc repeatedly visited Moscow using forged documents and held meetings with Dmitry Kozak, Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Executive Office. The Kremlin sought to secure the support of Moldova’s wealthiest man ahead of Moldovan parliamentary elections, which will take place on Sept. 28. Plahotniuc’s most recent trip to Moscow was in spring 2025.
In Russia, Plahotniuc is also facing criminal prosecution for forming a criminal group, drug trafficking, and money laundering. However, Moldovan authorities believe that Moscow is using these cases as a tool to protect the Kremlin-aligned oligarch, and that he would not actually be punished if international authorities extradited him to Moscow instead of to Chișinău.
