The judiciary suit throws light on the fact that the field has been in the midst of a number of dubious transactions that were used as part of a scheme to strip the municipality out of dozens of fields and to pass them into private hands. 

A firm called Auto Oil SRL, founded by Valentina Palii in October 2016, started the litigation early in 2017. 

Court obliges City Hall to let construction of gas station 

In its request to the Chisinau Court in the Central District, Auto Oil SRL said it had asked the City Hall to issue a certificate of urbanism – one of the many papers which a registered entity needs for the design and construction of a gas station. The firm neglected the fact that there are some 220 gas stations in the capital, 100 over the limit which the authorities had set earlier, and that the Municipal Council imposed in February 2016 a moratorium on this kind of buildings (and businesses). This moratorium was later annulled by another court of law. 

Given the circumstances above, Auto Oil SRL was denied the certificate. 

The court in its ruling from March 13, 2017, mentioned that the Municipal Department for Architecture, Urbanism and Land Affairs described the field that measured 0.076 hectares in the Grenoble Street as “part of the public domain of the capital as inalienable and imprescriptible [land], and it cannot be estranged.” The department explained to the applicant firm that the field has been part of litigation and no paper whatsoever can be issued unless the case is closed. 

The court however found little rationale to turn down the request for an urbanism certificate, by stating that the field was already property of Auto Oil SRL and that no litigation may be a ground for refusal for such documents. It also pointed to the fact that “in compliance with Article 3 of the Law on Authorization of Construction, this circumstance [litigation] is not an impediment for the issuance of official permits.” 

As a consequence, the Chisinau Court in the Central District obliged the Chisinau City Hall to issue immediately a certificate of urbanism for the design and construction of a gas station in the disputed field. 

How Auto Oil obtained the field 

The ruling came in spite of the fact that the field has been in the middle of several dubious transactions.

On September 14, 2016, it emerged that a couple – Oleg and Tatiana Marov from the town of Causeni – is the new owner of the field. A week later they sold the field to Fuerte Group, an offshore registered in Edinburgh, Scotland. Seventeen days after a new transaction takes place and the field became property of another couple – Sergiu and Olga Corghenci – who sold it to Auto Oil SRL on November 14, 2016. 

Readers should bear in mind that the capital’s administration disclosed at the end of 2016 the implication of Judge Angela Catană in a scheme envisaging the illegal expropriation of 20 fields from the public property of the municipality. 

"The court [presided by this judge] ordered the registration of ownership regarding the 20 fields within the city of Chisinau and which belonged to the municipality on the names of three firms, based merely on the minutes of a land auction which in reality never took place,” the City Hall said in a statement released to the media. None of the local public authorities had been cited in the suit or asked to defend its rights.

UK offshore 

An investigation carried out by Ziarul de Gardă demonstrates that Fuerte Group had been involved in the transactions with the field where Auto Oil SRL wants to build a gas station. Fuerte Group also captured 11 fields in the capital between late 2016 and early 2017.

Fuerte Group, a limited partnership, is owned by two other offshores: Derion Invest SA and Helex Invest SA from the Seychelles or other tax paradises. 

British records show that a 47-year-old man called Mihail Covali, from the village of Nimoreni in Ialoveni District, was in control with Fuerte Group as of August 26, 2017.

Scotland-registered limited partnerships had been involved in the financial fraud that shook and drained Moldova out of one billion US dollars as well as other major schemes. UK laws let beneficiaries of local offshores keep their identities in secret. 

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This article has been published thanks to the support of the National Endowment for Democracy as part of the Promoting Government Accountability Project and may be shared, republished or quoted without limitations. Reference to the source is mandatory.