Ilan Shor

Ilan Shor (or Șor;[2] Hebrew: אילן שור;[3] born 6 March 1987) is an Israel-born Moldovan oligarch[4] and politician. From July 2015 to April 2019, he served as mayor of the Moldovan city of Orhei.[5][6] He owns several Moldovan businesses, including a company named Dufremol (Duty-free) and the FC Milsami football club. In 2014, he became the chairman of the board of the Savings Bank of Moldova. Since 2019, he has been in exile in Israel after being convicted of fraud and money laundering. His political party reportedly seized the enclave of Gagauzia via embezzled money.[7]

Ilan Shor
Shor in 2016
Leader of the Șor Party
In office
19 June 2016 – 19 June 2023
Member of the Moldovan Parliament
In office
9 March 2019 – 27 April 2023
Parliamentary groupȘor Party
ConstituencyOrhei
Majority17,968 (59.2%)
Mayor of Orhei
In office
1 July 2015 – 9 April 2019
Preceded byVitalie Colun
Succeeded byPavel Verejanu
Personal details
Born (1987-03-06) 6 March 1987
Tel Aviv, Israel
NationalityMoldovan
Israeli[1]
Political partyȘor Party
Other political
affiliations		Chance. Duties. Realization
SpouseSara Shor
Children2
OccupationBusinessman, banker, politician

On 26 October 2022, the United States froze his US assets and criminalised any business transactions with him, with the United States Department of State claiming he worked with "corrupt oligarchs and Moscow-based entities to create political unrest in Moldova and sought to undermine Moldova’s bid for EU candidate status."[8] The United Kingdom and European Union have since followed in applying economic sanctions against Ilan Shor.[9]

On 12 December 2022, the Government of Moldova suspended broadcasting licenses for six television stations owned by Ilan Shor to "prevent the risk of disinformation or attempts to manipulate public opinion" over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.[10] On 14 April 2023 his sentence was increased to 15 years in absentia for fraud and money laundering in relation to a US$1 billion bank theft case. All Shor's Moldovan assets were frozen, but he remains in Israel to which he fled in 2019.[11] The Moldovan government has continued to petition Israel for his extradition to Moldova to serve out his sentence.[12]

His pro-Russian party, the Șor Party, was liquidated and banned by the Constitutional Court of Moldova on 19 June 2023 after months of protests organised by Shor and his party which the court claimed were designed to destabilise Moldova and foment a coup of the elected government in order to install a pro-Russian government.[13][14] On 2 August, the Parliament of Moldova approved legislation banning members of his party (including Ilan Shor) from running in any Moldovan elections for five years.[15][16]

Personal life

Shor was born in Tel Aviv, Israel on 6 March 1987, the son of Miron and Maria Shor,[17] Moldovan Jews from Chișinău who had moved to Israel in the late 1970s.[18] The family returned to Chișinău around 1990, when Shor was either two or three years old, and his father went into business in Moldova.[2][18] His father died in 2005.[19] Shor has been married to the Russian singer Sara Lvovna Shor, who goes by the stage name Jasmin, since 2011.[19][20] In addition to Jasmin's son from a previous marriage, they have a daughter, Margarita, who was born in 2012, and a son, Miron, who was born in 2016.[21]

2014 Moldovan bank fraud scandal

The Kroll report claims that although the final beneficiaries are unknown, some companies to which Shor has links benefited, either directly or indirectly, from loans issued from the three banks involved in the 2014 Moldovan bank fraud scandal.[22] On 26 November 2014, the banks went bankrupt and were later placed under special administration of the National Bank of Moldova. On 27 November, the Moldovan Government, headed by Prime Minister Iurie Leancă, secretly decided to bail out the three banks with $870 million in emergency loans, covered from state reserves. This created a deficit in Moldovan public finances equivalent to an eighth of the country's GDP.

In the week preceding the 2014 Moldovan parliamentary elections, more than $750 million (~$857 million in 2021) were extracted from the three banks between 24 and 26 November. A van belonging to Klassica Force, while transporting 12 sacks of bank files, was stolen and burned on November 27.[23] Records of many transactions were deleted from the banks' computers.[24]

In March 2015, Ilan Shor was suspected by the National Anti-Corruption Center (NAC) for his work in the Savings Bank. On 17 March 2015 he was questioned for 8 hours and anti-corruption officers seized his personal property. On May 6, 2015, Shor was placed under house arrest. As of 2015, Shor is allowed to move freely, after a period of house arrest. This is because he fully cooperated with the investigation. Despite this, he was allowed to register for electoral race for the mayor of city of Orhei, a contest in which he won 62% of the vote on June 14 local government election.[19][25][26]

Sentenced to 7.5 years in prison in June 2017 for money laundering, fraud and breach of trust, in relation to the banks, Shor who was under house arrest pending an appeal, is currently living in Israel, having fled there in 2019.[27]

On 13 April 2023, the appeal court doubled the sentence to 15 in years in prison in absentia on graft charges and froze all his assets.[28][29][30][31]

Political career

Mayor of Orhei

On 14 June 2015, Shor was elected mayor of the Moldovan town of Orhei[32] with 62% of the vote, a post he held until April 2019.


According to the polls made in 2019 related to the most popular politicians in Moldova, Shor was ranked at the third position among the top politicians in which Moldovans had the highest trust,[33] and by some polls he was ranked at the sixth[34][35] and at the seventh position accordingly.[36]

Opposition figure
Further information: 2022–2023 Moldovan protests

Whilst in exile, and with an arrest warrant outstanding, Shor was elected to the Parliament of Moldova in 2019 on the Șor Party list. he was re-elected in the 2021 Moldovan parliamentary election as one of six Șor Party MP's.[27] Following confirmation of his conviction, on 27 April 2023 Shor was removed as an MP, an appeal being rejected.[37]

Shor is a pro-Moscow opposition figure in Moldovan politics who has been described as "a leading figure in the Kremlin’s efforts to subvert" the Republic of Moldova, according to intelligence reports.[38] Shor is known by the moniker of "the young one" by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which, according to intercepted communications, sent Russian political strategists to assist Shor's political party.[38]

Banning of Șor Party and Ilan Shor from Moldovan politics

On 19 June 2023 the Șor Party was banned by the Constitutional Court of Moldova.[39] The court had declared the party unconstitutional with court chairman Nicolae Roșca citing "an article in the constitution stating that parties must through their activities uphold political pluralism, the rule of law and the territorial integrity of Moldova."[40]

On 31 July, the Moldovan parliament voted in favour of banning the leaders of the dissolved Șor Party – including Ilan Shor – from standing in elections for a period of five years.[41] Shor has claimed he will contest the ban.

Sanctions

On 26 October 2022, he was sanctioned by the United States Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control as a Specially Designated National under GLOMAG over his association with the Russian government.[42]

On 31 May 2023, European Union imposed sanctions against him, due to his association with the Russian government and because of his role in the pro-Russian unrest in Moldova.[43]

References
  1. "Profile: Ilan Shor".
  2. Whewell, Tim (18 June 2015). "The Great Moldovan Bank Robbery". London: BBC. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  3. "N12 - מולדובה: חשש לגל אנטישמיות בשל משפט המיליונר". 18 May 2015.
  4. "Moldova Seeks Arrest of Convicted Oligarch Ilan Shor". 26 July 2019.
  5. "Lista primarilor aleși în cadrul Alegerilor Locale Generale din 14 iunie 2015" (in Romanian). Comisia Electorală Centrală a Republicii Moldova. 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  6. "Moldova's Jews feel an anti-Semitic backlash after a corrupt Jewish politician flees to Israel". 29 August 2019.
  7. Higgins, Andrew (2023-09-24). "Cash, Mules and Paid Protests: How a Fraudster Seized an Ethnic Enclave". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-09-25.
  8. Siegal, Tobias (2022-10-26). "US sanctions Israeli citizen for promoting Kremlin agenda in Moldova". Times of Israel. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  9. Sokol, Sam (2023-05-30). "European Union Follows U.S., Britain in Imposing Sanctions on Israeli-Moldovan Politician". Haaretz. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  10. "Moldova suspends six channels over Ukraine 'disinformation' – DW – 12/17/2022". Deutsche Welle. 2022-12-17. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  11. "Oligarch sentenced for role in stealing $1B from Moldovan banks". AP News. 2023-04-14. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  12. Sokol, Sam (2023-01-08). "Moldova Wants Israel to Extradite This Politician. The U.S. and Russia Are Watching". Haaretz. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  13. "Moldovan court bans pro-Russian party Sor". BBC News. 2023-06-19. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  14. Gavin, Gabriel (2023-06-19). "Pro-Russian party banned in Moldova after coup warnings". Politico. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  15. Necșuțu, Mădălin (2023-08-01). "Fugitive Moldovan Oligarch to Contest Ban on Participation in Elections". Balkan Insight. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  16. "Moldovan Parliament Bans Leaders Of Dissolved Russia-Backed Party From Elections". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. 2023-07-31. Retrieved 2023-08-04.
  17. "Молодой уроженец Тель-Авива в списке богатейших людей Молдовы". Archived from the original on 2019-08-25. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  18. Krasotin, Igor (6 September 2013). Илан Шор. Биография миллиардера и мужа певицы Жасмин [Ilan Shor. Biography of the Millionaire and husband of the singer Jasmin]. 1tvnet (in Russian). Saint Petersburg. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  19. Railean, Diana (6 May 2015). "Moldova's Mysterious Magnate". Prague: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Archived from the original on 21 January 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  20. "Uite în ce lux trăiește cel mai tânăr milionar moldovean, Ilan Shor, și soția sa, interpreta Jasmin" [Look at the life of Moldova's youngest millionaire, Ilan Shor, and his wife, the singer Jasmin]. Publika (in Romanian). Chișinău. 14 October 2012. Archived from the original on 21 January 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
  21. "Vezi casa primarului de Orhei, Ilan Shor și a interpretei Jasmin din Rusia" [Look at the home of the mayor of Orhei, Ilan Shor, and the singer Jasmin from Russia]. ea.md (in Romanian). Chişinău. 10 January 2017. Archived from the original on 21 January 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
  22. Kroll Staff (2 April 2015). Project Tenor - Scoping Phase. Kroll Inc. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  23. "How to steal $1 billion in three days". 7 May 2015.
  24. "Cine este Ilan Shor, personajul principal din raportul Kroll privind "Furtul Secolului" din Republica Moldova. Omul de afaceri controlează bănci, Aeroportul din Chișinău, televiziuni și un club de fotbal". HotNews (in Romanian). 5 May 2015.
  25. "Did Ilan Shor Take the Missing $1 Billion From Moldovan Banks?". Jewish Business News. 6 May 2015.
  26. "Israeli-born billionaire accused in Moldova scheme to stay under house arrest". The Times of Israel.
  27. "Moldova court doubles prison sentence of pro-Russia politician hiding in Israel". 14 April 2023.
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  29. Tanas, Alexander (April 13, 2023). "Moldovan opposition leader gets 15 years for huge bank theft". Reuters – via www.reuters.com.
  30. Presse, AFP-Agence France. "Moldova Court Gives Fugitive Oligarch 15-year Jail Term". www.barrons.com.
  31. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-04-13/moldovan-opposition-leader-gets-15-years-for-huge-bank-theft
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  35. "Partidele care ar ajunge in legislativ daca duminica viitoare ar avea loc alegeri parlamentare. Top trei politicieni care se bucura de cea mai mare incredere. Sondaj iData", ProTV Chișinău, retrieved February 13, 2019
  36. "Sondaj: Cine sunt politicienii în care moldovenii au cea mai mare încredere", stiri.md, retrieved February 13, 2019
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  38. Bolton, Catherine (October 28, 2022). "Russia's security service works to subvert Moldova's pro-Western government". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 29, 2022.
  39. "Moldova bans pro-Russian Shor party after months of destabilisation activism". Euractiv. 2023-06-19. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
  40. Tanas, Alexander (2023-06-19). "Moldova bans pro-Russian Shor party after months of protests". Reuters. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
  41. Service, RFE/RL's Moldovan (2023-07-31). "Moldovan Parliament Bans Leaders Of Dissolved Russia-Backed Party From Elections". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
  42. "Treasury Targets Corruption and the Kremlin's Malign Influence Operations in Moldova". treasury.gov. 26 October 2022.
  43. "UE sancționează 7 persoane cu cetăţenie moldoveană, între care Ilan Şor şi Vlad Plahotniuc, pentru destabilizarea Rep. Moldova. MAE: România a ajutat la întocmirea listelor".
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