Nicolae Botgros reacted to an investigation published by RISE Moldova regarding land granted to the Lautarii Cultural Association for the construction of a cultural center in Chisinau, stating that some of the information had been “a bit exaggerated.”
In a comment for NewsMaker, Botgros said the project began in 2006, when a businessman from Moscow proposed building a cultural center in the capital dedicated to folklore.
According to the Party of Action and Solidarity MP, the authorities supported the initiative at the time. “We started this project, I went to the president and explained what it was about. He signed all the documents very quickly,” Botgros said, adding that the project was later affected by political changes and the Russian investor eventually withdrew funding.
He said that several years later, around 2017, another investor appeared who wanted to support the project, but the collaboration did not proceed as planned. “We agreed on one thing, he did it another way, and things turned out the way they did. In the end, I was forced to sell everything there because I had accumulated very large debts and did not want to end up with nothing,” Botgros said.
Botgros also stated that the amount mentioned in the public space had been exaggerated. “What is written on Facebook is a bit exaggerated, because it has not yet reached the million that people are talking about. It is a smaller amount that was supposed to cover the land we received for free from the government,” he explained.
The reaction comes after an investigation by RISE Moldova revealed that in 2007 the Lautarii Cultural Association received nearly 30 ares of public land from the government free of charge, where an International Folklore Center was supposed to be built. Over time, the project turned into a residential complex with several apartment buildings.
According to the investigation, in 2021—the year when most real estate transactions involving apartments in the complex took place—the Lautarii Cultural Association reported revenues of about 11 million lei, the highest in the organization’s history.