Victor Orindas from the District Commercial Court, one of the 16 judges in the attention of the Anticorruption Prosecutors in the caseof “Russian Laundromat" is still at large as he managed to go abroad before his colleagues were detained. Viorel Morari, head of Anticorruption Prosecutor's Office said that the police had taken steps to search him and that the magistrate would be in the US. Requested by reporters from Anticoruptie.md on socialization networks, Victor Orindas refused to provide comments. Meanwhile, his litigation with the Superior Council of Magistrates that declared him incompatible with the seat of judge, reached the Constitutional Court.

Members of the Superior Council of Magistrates (SCM) issued on May 31, a new judgmentand requested the president of the state to dismiss Victor Orindas as he was incompatible with the seat of magistrate. This decision was taken after members of the SCM examined in closed meeting the advisory opinion of the Intelligence and Security Service (SIS) on the name of magistrate. In the same meeting, members of SCM rejected the request of Victor Orindasby which he asked to be dismissed based on hisown request for resignation.

In June, the magistrate challenged the decisions of SCM and the advisory opinion of SIS at the Supreme Court of Justice. Victor Orindas invoked in his defense that in November 2015 hehas already been declared incompatible with the position he held andSCM made a similar proposal to the president of the state, but in February 2016the decision was annulled by the Supreme Court of Justice. As a result, the judge pointed that he was entitled to resign because on 16 May 2016 when he submitted the request, he did not have any disciplinary sanctions.

Three weeks ago, the magistrates of the Supreme Court of Justice issued a ruling by which they approved the request submitted by Ariadna Dodi, lawyer of Victor Orindas, on liftingconstitutional challenge. The defender ruledperforming thecontrol of constitutionality of a provision from the Law on verification of candidates for public office stipulating that"if the holder, the candidate refuses to perform additional control, provisions of article 9 par. ( 4) and (5)  are applied , which is "  if the candidate to public office refuses control, he will not be employed” or  " if the holder of public office does not accept control, the person / body who has legal competence of  appointment shall order his  dismissal".

Examination of the case at the Supreme Court of Justice will be resumed after the Constitutional Court develops its views on it. Meanwhile, SCM found another reason for disciplinary sanction of Victor Orindasand namely the fact that the judge was absent from duty. The magistrate was granted unpaid leave for 90 daysin March, 2016. The leave expired in June and since then the judge was absent from duty.

Earlier, he declared that his problems had started after he was pressed by his colleague Ion Turcan from the Centru District Court of the capital to influence the liquidation case of the NGOs Falun Dafa and Falun Gong Moldova and the Banca de EconomiivsProacvacom SRL, Nuntius SRLon bad credit amounted at 1.8 million euro.

Similarly, the magistrate said thathe was intimidated by SIS employees. "Mr. Orindas’s allegations concerning inconsistentactions of SIS representatives were checked, they proved to be unfounded and contradictory", writes a reply that was sent to Anticoruptie.md by SIS.

Earlier, Victor Orindas was in the attention of aninvestigation ofZiarul National conducted in partnership with the Center for Investigative Journalism that reveals that a sum of 18 billion dollars was laundered through the judiciary in Moldova. According to the investigation, the magistrate is Nb. 2 in terms of the number of orders issued for money laundering. He issued three orders to help laundering of $1.48 billion.

At the request of the acting general prosecutor Eduard Harunjen, Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM) agreed to prosecute 16 current and former judges, involved in laundering about 18 billion dollars in the Russian Federation through the Moldovan judiciary.  This decision was taken in a closed- door meeting on September 20. 

List of former and current magistrates involved in the “Russian laundromat”, in the attention of the anticorruption prosecutors