The UAE Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed the arrest of the former Minister of Justice of Moldova, Vitalie Pîrlog, who also held the position of chairman of the Interpol Files Control Commission (CCF) from 2017 to 2022. According to Bloomberg, Pîrlog was a key figure in an international scheme that allowed dozens of suspects in serious crimes to avoid arrest through bribes via Interpol.
In Dubai, he was detained at the request of France for document forgery, bribery mediation, and fraud.
Through proxy lawyers and officials in Chisinau, crime suspects obtained fictitious refugee status in Moldova, which automatically blocked the red notice in Interpol's database. Fake asylum applications and fictitious documents were used to remove notices. All applications were processed in Moldova without the applicants actually entering the country. According to the investigation, the scheme operated from mid-2022 for about six months until it was uncovered.
The money for these services was transferred to the account of the company VR Legal Advisory FZ LLC, registered to Pîrlog in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah.
As reported by Bloomberg, at least 26 people used the scheme. Among them were Russian businessmen Andrey Shlyaknov (a banker convicted of embezzling 130 million rubles from Agrosoyuzbank) and Sergey Shpak, sentenced in Russia for fraud amounting to 1.8 billion rubles, Murat Usekaev — the son of the former Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan, convicted of money laundering, as well as Ukrainian and Israeli citizen Sergey Osherovsky, suspected of extorting $1 million.
In November 2024, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Moldova reported the arrest of Pîrlog's assets amounting to 11.7 million lei. At that time, he was already in Dubai, where he has now been detained. His extradition to France is currently expected, but the court in the UAE has not yet made a decision.