Secretive Antenna-Equipped Vehicle: Probing Data Leaks and Unraveling Investigation Delays

Nine months after the publication in the public domain of several conversations attributed to high-ranking officials from the Republic of Moldova, no person has been accused or suspected of the breach of those individuals’ accounts. In November 2022, a criminal investigation was launched into the “unlawful interception of computer data transmission,” but there has been no conclusion in this case to date. The Moldova-Leaks website became inactive after Dorin Recean was voted into the position of Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, writes ZdG.

On November 9, 2022, on a portal created just a day prior – Moldova-Leaks.com, several private conversations from the Telegram network were published, attributed to the then Minister of Justice, Sergiu Litvinenco. Simultaneously, messages appeared on the public accounts of President Maia Sandu and the then Deputy Prime Minister, Andrei Spînu, urging followers to access the respective portal, and the Government announced on the same day that these accounts had been compromised.

The administrators of Moldova-Leaks did not reveal their identity but announced on the website that this was the “largest leak of private correspondence of high-ranking officials from the Republic of Moldova” and that more data leaks from other dignitaries were to follow.

Two days later, alleged conversations of the current Prime Minister, Dorin Recean, who at the time held the position of advisor to President Maia Sandu on defense and national security matters and Secretary of the Supreme Security Council (CSS), appeared on the site.

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Leaks from conversations of Vadim Pistrinciuc, a former deputy, Ana Revenco, then Minister of Internal Affairs, Dumitru Alaiba, then deputy, and Ion Munteanu, interim Attorney General, followed. The PCCOCS (Center for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases) announced that the Telegram account of the Chief of the General Police Inspectorate, Viorel Cernăuțeanu, was compromised and a criminal investigation was initiated.

In the alleged conversations of the former Minister of Justice, Sergiu Litvinenco, he was purported to have discussed with some members of the Superior Council of Prosecutors regarding the support for Veronica Dragalin’s candidacy in the competition for the position of Chief of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. Initially, the former Minister of Justice stated that all leaked messages were fabricated, and later stated that the information was truncated and taken out of context.

The prosecutor conducting the criminal investigation in this case, Alexandru Păun, stated to ZdG that the criminal investigation is ongoing, “because actions are being taken, including involving authorities from other countries, and we are awaiting responses. Requests have been formulated, including letters rogatory, and we are waiting for the responses. That’s why, possibly, some may think it’s taking so long. It’s a standard procedure.”

Asked about the version of certain suspicious devices equipped with antennas that could have intercepted phones, the prosecutor said: “You are very well informed, but the confidentiality of the criminal investigation is at stake.”