The former leader of the Democratic Party of Moldova, Vladimir Plahotniuc, has been detained in Greece, according to an official announcement from the Moldovan Police.
„A short while ago, the official Interpol channels in Athens, Greece, informed us that two Moldovan citizens have been detained. One of them is Vladimir Plahotniuc,” the statement reads.
The Chief of the National Police, Viorel Cernăuțeanu, confirmed that the detention took place on Tuesday morning, around 04:30. "The two individuals were in transit through Greece, en route to Dubai," the official told TV8.
Cernăuțeanu did not disclose the identity of the other person, but sources cited by TV8 claim that it is former Democratic Party deputy Constantin Țuțu.
Vladimir Plahotniuc left Moldova in June 2019 after the Democrats lost power. Subsequently, an arrest warrant was issued for him for money laundering in the "Bank Fraud" case - a scheme through which over a billion dollars were siphoned from the Moldovan banking system between 2013 and 2015.
Although Plahotniuc's lawyers have denied the accusations, authorities have managed to seize several assets, including a villa in Switzerland and a cabin in the Alps.
On February 7, 2025, Plahotniuc was once again put on international wanted list after Interpol reviewed a previous refusal. At the end of that month, the fugitive oligarch was located in a luxury hotel in Dubai, but the detention occurred only now, as he was trying once again to reach the Emirates.
However, Moldovan prosecutors have several cases on their table in which the former politician, once very influential in Moldova's politics and business, is accused of large-scale fraud and money laundering, creating and leading a criminal organization, illicit enrichment, abuse of power, active corruption, and falsification of public documents.
At the end of March, oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc obtained Mexican identity documents. According to an investigation by the publication Ziarul de Gardă (ZdG) in Chișinău, the documents are allegedly false and were sent from Mexico by a Mexican citizen in the name of a young woman from Russia, residing in Dubai, Irina Ustina.