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Profile updated: 27.10.20
 Air Moldova SRL  
 company 
Date founded : 12.01.1993
Country: Republic of Moldova, Chisinau
IDNO: 1002600001718
It is the largest carrier in Moldova, with a turbulent history of reorganizations. In March 2000, under the Braghis government, Victor Topa, now ex-director of the State Administration of Civil Aviation (ASAC) (and godfather of the current leader of the Dignity and Truth Platform, Andrei Nastase), intermediated an agreement between the Moldovan government and the German company Unistar Ventures Gmbh. Under that agreement, the German side took possession of 49% of shares in the state-owned airline Air Moldova for an investment of 2.38 million dollars.

Mr. Topa was later appointed as minister of transportation - and worked as such until at the end of 2001 when the Communists sacked the entire cabinet to form one of their own. Frictions between the new authorities and the German investor about Air Moldova started immediately. At a shareholder assembly in June 2002, ASAC dismissed the director of Air Moldova and asked a court to terminate the agreement with the German company, with no compensations awarded. As Moldova illegally reversed the privatization process into nationalization, in December 2008, the European Court of Human Rights obliged Moldova to pay Unistar Ventures 6.7 million euros in damages.

Air Moldova attracted new attention in 2017-2018 as it was approaching the verge of bankruptcy, losing hundreds of millions of lei a year and facing hardship in getting new loans from banks. In the fall of 2017, the authorities provided about 90 million lei in aid to the national air carrier but it didn’t help much.

In the summer of 2018, Air Moldova was sold into private hands again, in a record time. The new owner - Civil Aviation Group SRL - paid 50 million lei for Air Moldova and assumed all of its debts. Civil Aviation Group’s founders were Romania’s low-cost Blue Air Aviation SA (49%) and two Moldovan nationals: Serghei Melnik and Andrei Ianovici - with 25.5% each.

As the Democratic Party lost the power in summer 2019, the new parliamentary majority made up of the Russia-leaning Socialist Party and pro-West ACUM bloc rushed to investigate the circumstances of privatizations under the previous rule. An inquiry commission found violations of procedures and laws in the privatization of Air Moldova and the investor’s failure to comply with its commitments.

The same summer, prosecutors launched an official probe seeking to demonstrate that the cash paid for Air Moldova had originated from a money-laundering operation. The media learned that Andrei Ianovici, one of the owners of Air Moldova, had smuggled 2.6 million euros in cash from the United Arab Emirates. The law enforcement officers were also trying to demonstrate that the money actually had come from a domestic insurer, Moldasig.

In September 2019, prosecutors obtained a sequester on the equity capital of Air Moldova (more than 300 million lei) while the air carrier was undergoing a reorganization from a joint-stock company into a limited liability company.
   Proxy 
   Headquarter 
   Associate 
   Company’s history 
10.2018
Civil Aviation Group SRL
100%
08.2002
Government
10.2018
100%
03.2000
Government
08.2002
51%
03.2000
Unistar Ventures GmbH
08.2002
49%
01.1993
Government
03.2000
100%
01.1993
Chisinau mun.
80/2 Dacia blvd. (Chisinau Airport)
09.2019
Alexandru Ceban
administrator
08.2015
Iulian Scorpan
09.2019
administrator
07.2013
Mircea Maleca
08.2015
administrator
12.2008
Iulian Scorpan
07.2013
administrator
11.2008
Mircea Maleca
12.2008
administrator
03.2005
Vasile Botnari
11.2008
administrator
02.2005
Vladimir Conovaliov
03.2005
administrator (interim)
2002
Dorin Timciuc
02.2005
administrator
1997
Petru Ceban
2002
administrator
1995
Boris Salov
11.1997
administrator
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 politician 
 Monica Babuc 
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