Shor's New Agent in Washington - Victoria Şapa
Investigations: March 1, 2025
Ilan Shor has a new political agent seeking meetings with lawmakers and think tanks in Washington DC. Her name is Victoria Şapa and she is being represented by a Spanish PR and consulting firm called Fortius Consulting which is working to connect her to decision makers in the American capital.
Fortius reached out to arrange meetings with the following profile description of their client.
In addition to any meetings arranged by Fortius, Victoria Şapa was in Washington with the intention to attend the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). She has made no social media posts or public statements about her visit or activities so it is unclear if she did attend CPAC or whether Fortius was successful in arranging meetings for her. Neither Victoria Şapa nor Fortius Consulting responded to multiple requests for comment. As of the time of writing there is no publicly available Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing regarding the services and activities that Fortius is providing to Şapa1.
Who is Victoria Şapa?
Back in Fall 2023 Ilan Shor was determined to contest the election for mayor of Balti. His primary candidate, Marina Tauber, was not allowed to run due to the decision that summer declaring the Shor Party unconstitutional, which contributed to her registration as a candidate being rejected. In order to hedge against his candidates being removed from the race Shor ran 6 candidates in this election - one of whom was Victoria Şapa.
Ms. Şapa was a candidate for the Chance Party and was removed from the race right before the election along with all other Chance candidates across the country. I covered these dramatic events in detail at the time:
While her official political career was short lived, Victoria Şapa isn’t just a minor regional figure in the Shor network. She grew up with Ilan Shor and Marina Tauber and has been friends with them since childhood.
Last April Ms. Şapa traveled to Moscow to attend the launch of Shor’s new political block - Pobeda (Victory). At the event she was seated in the front row with Ilan Shor, Bashkan Evghenia Gutsul, Marina Tauber, Alexei Lunga (leader of the Chance Party) and other top Shor leaders.
Upon returning to Moldova following the event Ms. Şapa was briefly detained and searched at the airport before being released. Police seized over 20 million lei from other Shor activists returning from the event but found nothing illegal on Ms. Şapa.
Why is She in DC?
As we’ve covered in past investigations2 at Moldova Matters the Shor network is increasingly spending effort and resources in an attempt to sway American politicians and foreign policy professionals. While we don’t know what message Ms. Şapa may have conveyed in whatever meetings that she may have had, past campaigns indicate that Shor has tried to lobby for sanctions relief. He has also sought to paint Moldova as place where free speech is in jeopardy - code for lobbying for the return of Russian propaganda channels to the airwaves.
While we don’t know why she specifically was sent to DC, one possibility is that it wasn’t a long journey for her. Victoria Şapa has lived outside of Moldova for most of the last 17 years, first in Canada and most recently in Miami. It’s unclear if she is an American or Canadian citizen, but she certainly has rights of residency and unhindered entrance into the United States. Past attempts by Shor agents such as Vasilie Tarlev have stumbled due to his inability to get a visa.
She is married to Russian citizen Oleg Semenov. Both Ms. Şapa and Mr. Semenov work as real estate agents.
Victoria Şapa’s Complex Finances
When running for mayor Victoria Şapa filed an income and asset declaration with the National Integrity Authority (ANI). In this declaration, which covered January - December 2022, she indicated a salary of approximately $25,000 from Remax, dividends of $125,000 paid to her husband from his business, a house and an apartment collectively valued at approximately $1.2 million Canadian dollars. She also declared a car and a bank account with $38,000 Canadian dollars in cash.
Investigative journalists at RISE Moldova profiled Şapa at the time and did not report any findings contradicting that declaration. Since that time, new information has come to light which we’re reporting here for the first time in Moldova Matters.
In September 2024 Oleg Semenov and Victoria Şapa filed a lawsuit against a man named Alex Genin who they accuse of “egregiously” mismanaging their finances. The suit alleges that Oleg Semenov opened a brokerage account with Wells Fargo at the urging of Mr. Genin who would act as his financial advisor and investment manager. In early 2020 Oleg Semenov funded this account with $1,285,000 dollars in cash. Later, in September 2021 Oleg Semenov introduced Victoria Şapa to Mr. Genin and she gave him the password to her brokerage account. The suit alleges that Ms. Şapa had funded the account with $80,000 which it calls her “life savings.”
The lawsuit goes on to allege that the pair were unaware of Mr. Genin’s past reprimands from the SEC for trading unregistered securities, engaging in pump-and-dump schemes and trading penny stocks. Over the period of May 2020 to April 2022 Mr. Genin engaged in a frenzy of high volume trading in penny stocks and meme stocks. He invested Ms. Şapa’s money in Canadian Cannabis holdings and other high risk stocks.
When the dust settled Ms. Şapa’s $80,000 had been reduced to $18,356 (November 2022) and Mr. Semenov was left holding a bizarre and extremely high risk portfolio with a value of approximately $144,0003 (June 2023).
Aside from serving as a cautionary tale, this court filing is significant because none of these investment accounts or stock holdings were reported in Şapa’s ANI declaration covering 2022.
According to Ilie Chirtoacă, Executive Director of the Legal Resources Center in Moldova (CRJM), Victoria Şapa “was legally required to declare the investment, with no exceptions.” He noted that even if the foreign brokerage account was solely in her husband’s name it falls under the legal reporting requirements for public officials and candidates. Declarations are subject to a reporting threshold set at 15 times the average monthly salary. For 2022 this would have meant that any assets with a value greater than around $7500 would need to be declared. If the basic facts of Oleg Semenov and Victoria Şapa’s lawsuit are accurate then they omitted assets considerably greater than this threshold from her filing.
According to Chirtoacă, the National Integrity Authority has 3 years from the date of filing to open an investigation into such reports - meaning that the statute of limitation on such an investigation extends to September 2026.
Penalties for omissions on ANI declarations vary widely based on whether there was an intention to omit information and the magnitude of the omission. Typically such investigations for someone who was not elected to office may involve a fine and prohibition from holding public office for a period of time.
Victoria Şapa did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
What is Fortius Consulting?
Fortius is a small strategic consultancy company based in Madrid. It is led by CEO Juan Angel Soto Gomez who is a very active figure at right-wing conferences and MEGA events across Europe, but who has few clear links to Moldova.
In Part 2 of our investigation we will take a deeper dive into Fortius and examine how the company that represents Ilan Shor’s interests in Washington fits into the larger geopolitical moment.
This story was reported by David Smith with research assistance from Emma Marechal. It was written by David Smith.
According to journalists experienced with the FARA system new filings typically appear online shortly after they are registered with the Justice Department. It is unclear whether Fortius filed the required declaration and they did not respond to questions on this topic. It is possible that the filing just hasn’t appeared online yet. Attorney General Pam Bondi has deprioritized FARA and personnel changes in the Federal Government right now may simply be slowing the process.
This is a rough estimate based on the stocks listed in the complaint and their values on the specific date mentioned. It is unclear what Oleg Semenov’s actual loss was when you factor in the various fees Mr. Genin paid himself, etc.
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