The MoldATSA Scandal Gets Even Stranger
A second presidential cousin, Flight School (*cough* Microsoft Flight Simulator) and more unanswered questions
Hi and welcome back to Moldova Matters! Last week we focused 3 in-depth articles on the Ministry of Finance’s proposed tax reforms and on the evolving scandal at MoldATSA. That scandal is only getting worse so today we’ll check in on the latest twists and turns. You’ll have a full roundup of the other top stories of the last week in your inbox tomorrow morning.
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Last week we covered how an investigation from ZdG uncovered serious issues with the state enterprise responsible for managing Moldova’s airspace - MoldATSA. Firstly, the company’s director Dumitru Vangheli lied on his CV about being an Air Canada Pilot (or being a pilot at all). Secondly, since he took over the company Mr. Vangheli oversaw a huge increase in salaries for employees MoldATSA. One of these employees was President Maia Sandu’s cousin Anastasia Taburceanu. While Dumitru Vangheli was fired by the Public Property Agency (APP) and Anastasia Taburceanu resigned with a promise to return her salary, the scandal was far from over.
Another Cousin of Maia Sandu Resigns
On June 26 Tatiana Batin, chief of staff to Speaker of Parliament Igor Grosu, resigned. She is the sister of Anastasia Taburceanu and cousin to President Sandu. Speaking of the resignation, Igor Grosu stated:
“I believe this was an honorable resignation, connected to the incident involving her sister and the situation at MoldATSA. We worked together for four years, and I have no complaints about her professional performance.”
Tatiana Batin has not spoken publicly about her resignation and Speaker Grosu has insisted that it was triggered by her sister’s involvement in the MoldATSA scandal. However, on the same day, TV8 released a new investigation into Tatiana Batin’s husband Constantin Batin with some serious allegations.
TV8’s flagship investigative program Black Box PLUS found that Constantin Batin conducted business dealing with Latvian citizen Marks Blats, who was under US sanctions at the time. Later Blats was also sanctioned by the EU, UK, Latvia and Ukraine. Blats is identified as part of an arms trafficking and sanctions evasion network led by Igor Zimenkov. This network supplies military technology to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine.
For the last 2 years, Constantin Batin has served as the director of the Free Economic Zone Expo-Business-Chisinau. Two weeks before he was appointed to this position he “swapped” companies with Marks Blats - this was in 2024. Batin gave Blats the company Berlagr SRL, a small sewing factory with 13 employees and income of 4 million lei in 2023. In return, he received Ecotech Group SRL, a hazardous waste disposal company that had 16,000 lei of turnover in 2024. Confusingly, Ecotech Group SRL was founded by Batin in 2020 for Balts. He transferred the company to Blats before, then got it back in the 2024 trade, where he gave Blats a vastly more profitable sewing factory.
Constantin Batin told TV8 that it was valuable for Blats to take over a company with operating history1 and that he himself wanted to get into the waste treatment business but ultimately did not do so because he got the job at Expo-Business-Chisinau. Asked how long he had known Blats, he was initially evasive claiming that:
“I’ve been working with Israelis since 2005. Since then, hundreds of people from Israel have come through me.”
Mr. Blats is also an Israeli citizen. After further prevaricating Batin explained he has known him since 2007-2008. When asked if he knew that he was under sanctions he replied:
Batin: “I learned from you that he was under sanctions. To me, honestly, it doesn’t matter much whether he has sanctions or not. This in no way influences me materially or otherwise.”
TV8 Reporter: - “I think it should matter.”
Batin: “For you as a journalist, it matters that you found out the news. For me, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is not to appear in sanctions, you understand? I know what I’m doing and I’m responsible for my activity.2”
Three months after swapping companies, both men transferred both companies to an Israeli citizen named Nairner Michael. Asked about this Batin stated:
“I sold them to a Jewish man originally from Moldova who wanted to return to Moldova and start a business here,”
TV8 reported that this is not an accurate characterization of their relationship because Nairner Michael had previously managed companies for both Mr. Batin and Mr. Blats3.
The investigation found substantial evidence of other eyebrow raising transactions with Israeli citizens, including one instance where Batin bought a company that had declared real estate assets worth 2.5 million lei. He paid €50,000 euros for the company and immediately liquidated the assets for 4.9 million lei (~€243,000).
In statements so far people, have claimed that Tatiana Batin resigned due to her sister’s scandal and that the TV8 story only broke after the resignation. However, it broke on the same day and her husband is quoted extensively in the story - so they knew it was coming.
Asked to comment on the story the Presidency replied to TV8
"the head of state has 24 cousins. Of all of them, only 2 are in public positions, in which they have engaged legally, transparently and based on their own skills and desires. Each one follows their own professional path and works in certain positions with no connection to Maia Sandu's career."
TV8 found that actually President Sandu has 2 more cousins in state employment, one working for the State Enterprise for Forestry and one working for Moldelectrica.
Radu Marian Resigns Over Recommending Dumitru Vangheli
PAS MP and Chairmen of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy, Budget and Finance, Radu Marian, resigned his chairmanship today in the latest fallout from the scandal. Marian had previously admitted that he recommended Dumitru Vangheli for the post of MoldATSA director and stated that:
“We grew up in the same courtyard at the Old Post Office. We’ve known each other for a long time, but we weren’t friends. I don’t know where he went to school,”
He has apologized for this mistake multiple times in the last few days and explained that he was trying to promote qualified people from the diaspora to areas where the state was looking for specialists. He also apologized for not vetting his CV before the recommendation “Even though I didn’t hire him. And I wasn’t involved in the competition, nor in the decisions regarding Vangeli’s salary.”
In his resignation statement he wrote that his continued role as chairman was distracting from the project of pushing towards EU integration but that he would continue working as an MP.
Dumitru Vangheli - Pilot in Video Games
Meanwhile, the inconstancies around Dumitru Vangheli’s CV and his work in Canada are starting to become clearer. In a followup to their initial investigation, ZdG spoke with Tudor Răilean, a friend of Dumitru Vangheli’s since childhood who moved to Canada at the same time as him. There, they remained close, living in the same building and often working together. He shed some light on what Vangheli was really doing while claiming to attain a commercial pilots license, fly for Air Canada and run a series of successful companies.
At the time that Vangheli’s claimed he was taking commercial piloting courses at CargAir, he was actually working at a Montreal hotel - a job he was fired from for stealing a bag of glasses according to Răilean. After that he worked as a pizza delivery driver.
On his CV Vangheli claimed to operate a number of companies including GoRepas - a company that did airline catering and refrigerated logistics. According to Răilean Vangheli did not own this company but worked on the production line. The 2 men later became subcontractors and bought their own refrigerated truck to do deliveries. Through these and other arrangements Dumitru Vangheli came to owe Tudor Răilean around 30,000 Canadian dollars which he failed to repay. When Răilean sued him he discovered that Vangheli had declared bankruptcy and discharged his debts of 97,450 Canadian dollars.
So at various times when Vangheli claimed to be either an airline pilot or the CEO of various companies, he was alternately driving an Uber, working low level catering jobs or running a crypto mining operation. All the while he apparently stayed fascinated by planes and told Răilean that he was taking lessons via Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Răilean told ZdG that he returned to Moldova in 2024 after Vangheli was already working at MoldATSA. He sought a meeting with his former friend to ask about the money he was still owed, but only got an appointment when he told the receptionist that an old colleague from Air Canada was calling. Răilean asked about the reported millions of dollars he had in Canadian accounts and crypto and Vangheli spun a new tale - that his crypto were frozen. He said that he had invested them in a Russian professional video game team and that when the war started the funds were blocked. Asked if he would expose him, Răilean stated that he told Vangheli "Live your life in peace, I have no business. Shall we solve something with the debt?" He did not repay the debts.
As to the luxury cars he reported owning, Răilean told ZdG that Vangheli loved fancy cars and showing off money he didn’t have. On multiple occasions he bought luxury cars which he drove around for a few months before returning them.
Dumitru Vangheli did not respond to requests for comment from ZdG.
Analysis - What a Mess.
What started as a fabricated CV has now caused the committee resignation of one of the most prominent members of the PAS Parliamentary faction, the resignations of 2 cousins of the President, and left us with a number of unanswered questions.
Let’s start with what we do know - Dumitru Vangheli’s whole CV is a fantasy, or a lie. Some could argue that it was “fake it till you make it” gone awry. Others would argue that he’s a conman. In either case, there is zero excuse for those who hired him.
For that we look to the MoldATSA board of directors. On the same day that this scandal broke the Public Property Agency (APP) announced that former Prime Minister Dorin Recean was appointed to this board in an unpaid position. Answering a question about this fact, President Sandu said:
"I don't know why the Public Property Agency decided this way, but they decided to appoint him in this situation to clarify what happened there. But Mr. Recean was appointed after the scandal,"
So Recean was brought in by the APP to start sorting the issue out. This indicates that they knew they had a problem, though it might have only been from calls for comment from ZdG.
What is most perplexing right now is why this is the only change that has been made to the MoldATSA board of directors. They were the ones who oversaw the competition and selected Dumitru Vangheli for director. They were responsible for overseeing company finances and approving executive compensation. In almost every conceivable way the board has failed. But no one has resigned and APP not fired them either.
Then we add the fact that MP Radu Marian has resigned his committee chairmanship. As far as we know right now, his only role in this whole mess was to recommend Dumitru Vangheli as a candidate for the position. Vangheli was one of 3 candidates, and the others were qualified. One of them, Midrigan Vitalie-Silviu, went on to be Vangheli’s deputy director and is now the acting director. So whether or not Radu Marian made a recommendation, the choice to hire Vangheli was made by the board of directors… right?
Maybe not. As I wrote last time, Moldova has chronic governance problems with state companies. MoldATSA does not have an independent board in any meaningful sense of the word and all members are also serving in ministries or state agencies where they were appointed by PAS. Perhaps the board isn’t being held accountable because they aren’t really accountable.
Tatiana Batin’s resignation is more likely tied to her husband's parallel scandal than the optics of her sister being caught up in this one. Whatever the case, MoldATSA and its various sub-scandals has told us a few things definitively. Firstly, PAS has trouble inside its own house and some people close to power are profiting from those connections. These scandals are already extremely damaging for the party’s image and anti-corruption credentials. The big question now is who gets held accountable?
Secondly, this has highlighted the serious problems in the governance of state owned companies. A simply glance at MoldATSA’s board is enough to see that the members are neither qualified nor independent. The fact that they have not yet been held accountable suggests that no one really thought they were.
This scandal highlights an urgent need for corporate governance reform for state companies. That reform should put an emphasis on independent board members and put an end to the system where these jobs are used as salary top-ups for junior civil servants.
This coming week should tell us a lot about how those in power choose to react to this story. We’ll follow along and bring you updates as they happen.
There could be a few legitimate reasons for this - tax advantages, licensed operations, bank history, etc. Each of these reasons would add value to the company - making it harder to understand selling a recently profitable company for scraps. There are of course less legitimate reasons as well.
It honestly sounds like he might not know how sanctions work…
Admittedly, it would be weirder if he was a random person who really wanted to move to Moldova and simultaneously operate a tiny sewing factory and a hazardous waste management company.