Moldova’s Security and Intelligence Service has declined to comment on allegations made by Renato Usatii, leader of Our Party, who accused the agency of covering up the alleged involvement of a former senior SIS official in telephone fraud schemes.
Asked by Realitatea for a response, the SIS said it does not comment on statements made by political figures.
“The institution does not comment on statements made by political actors. The Service carries out its activities in accordance with the legal framework and provides information to other institutions within its competences and in the manner established by law,” the agency said.
At the beginning of July, during the Secretele Puterii programme on Jurnal TV, Usatii alleged that Sorin Josan, a former head of a department within the SIS, had been involved in telephone fraud schemes.
According to Usatîi, the leadership of the intelligence service had known about the case for several months and allegedly attempted to conceal it. He claimed that video and audio recordings exist showing Josan coordinating the activities of a fraud network.
“As director of the Security and Intelligence Service, Musteata received video materials from an investigation that lasted many months in the Republic of Moldova and directly concerns one person: Sorin Josan, an SIS department head. He summoned fraudsters from call centres in Moldova and instructed them on how to move the money,” Usatîi alleged.
The Our Party leader also claimed that the former SIS official had been captured in video and audio recordings while allegedly coordinating and protecting a fraud network operating in Chisinau.
Previously, the SIS warned that Russian intelligence services were allegedly collecting Moldovan citizens’ personal data on a large scale for use in fraud operations.
According to the agency, the data are allegedly obtained through several methods, including illegally traded private databases on the dark web, unauthorized access to private servers, and a database accumulated over recent years by the organized criminal group linked to fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, reportedly containing information on around 145,000 Moldovan citizens.
The SIS said the data are then allegedly passed to transnational organized crime groups for use in fraud schemes, including stealing money from citizens’ bank cards and committing other financial crimes.