Moldova's Most Notorious Oligarch Has Been In The U.S. Despite Sanctions

He's one of the most powerful, and most notorious, tycoons in Moldova's three decades of independence, a man linked to the "theft of the century" -- the disappearance of $1 billion from Moldovan banks in 2014.

A longtime behind-the-scenes power broker, Vladimir Plahotniuc fled Moldova in June 2019 after being pushed out of parliament as part of a government shakeup brokered by Russia, the United States, and other European partners. He has dropped out of the public view since then, reportedly traveling under one or more assumed names and alternate passports.

In January, the United States hit the ousted oligarch and his family with visa restrictions "due to his involvement in significant corruption...that undermined the rule of law and severely compromised the independence of democratic institutions in Moldova."

Moldovan officials and U.S. officials with knowledge of the situation, however, told RFE/RL that Plahotniuc had been in the United States on several occasions in recent months, including at least once since the State Department imposed the visa restrictions. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

The development has worried anti-corruption experts, activists in Moldova, and observers abroad who fear the U.S. administration is sending a bad signal to countries trying to root out corruption and improve governance.

"If Vladimir Plahotniuc is really somewhere in the United States, this would be unsurprising but disappointing," said William Hill, a U.S. diplomat who headed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe mission in Moldova in the late 1990s and 2000s.

"The U.S. lost a great deal of credibility and support in Moldovan civil society over the past few years due to Washington's continued, seemingly uncritical willingness to work with Plahotniuc almost up to the end of his days in power," he said. "Backing for Plahotniuc, tacit or explicit, caused many in Moldova increasingly to perceive American rhetoric in support of democracy and reform as largely self-interested anti-Russian geopolitics."

Moldovan officials, including the current president, Igor Dodon, have complained publicly for months that the United States wasn't doing enough to help bring Plahotniuc to justice. "We see that the Americans are not in a hurry," Dodon said in an interview last month, when asked specifically about where Plahotniuc was. "I think that this will affect the image of the United States, if, on the one hand, they make such statements, on the other hand, they still grant political coverage," he told RFE/RL.

Asked for further details about how Dodon knew Plahotniuc was in the United States, spokeswoman Carmena Sterpu told RFE/RL that it had been "personally confirmed...for President Dodon" by U.S. Ambassador Dereck Hogan.