FOR YEARS, Vlad Plahotniuc did a convincing(令人信服的，逼真的) imitation(模仿，仿制品) of a James Bond villain. From 2010-19 the Moldovan oligarch, widely known as Mr P, controlled almost everything in the country. But on April 22nd he was sentenced to 19 years in jail for his role in stealing $1bn from the country’s banks a decade ago, and fined $60m in damages. For tiny Moldova, it was a huge step—a sign that the notoriously corrupt and cowed judiciary has begun to work as it should. That is a central demand of the European Union, which Moldova is striving to join.
多年来，弗拉德·普拉霍特纽克对詹姆斯·邦德式反派的模仿可谓惟妙惟肖。2010年至2019年，这位广为人知的“普先生”几乎控制了摩尔多瓦的一切。但在4月22日，他因十年前从该国银行盗窃10亿美元而被判处19年监禁，并需支付6000万美元赔偿。对于小小的摩尔多瓦来说，这是一大步——标志着臭名昭著、腐败懦弱的司法系统终于开始正常运转。这正是摩尔多瓦努力加入的欧盟的核心要求。
Mr Plahotniuc and his Democratic Party dominated(主宰，支配) Moldova before he fell and fled in 2019. The police were his personal enforcers. He and his cronies seized control of government, banks and big business. Intimidation and blackmail were the order of the day(司空见惯的事，常态). When he was arrested in Greece last year, police found that he had 17 forged(伪造的) passports or ID cards and had stayed in 22 countries since 2023 in order to avoid detection.
普拉霍特纽克先生及其领导的民主党在2019年他倒台逃离前一直主宰着摩尔多瓦。警察是他个人的执法力量。他和他的亲信夺取了政府、银行和大企业的控制权。恐吓和敲诈是家常便饭。去年他在希腊被捕时，警方发现他持有17本伪造的护照或身份证件，自2023年以来为逃避追捕已在22个国家停留过。
The court determined that Mr Plahotniuc’s organisation had conspired to steal $1bn from banks between 2013 and 2015 and launder the money through shell companies(空壳公司). It was equivalent to an eighth of Moldova’s GDP at the time. In a separate case while Mr Plahotniuc was in power, Moldova was a linchpin(关键环节，支柱) in a scheme to launder $20bn of dirty Russian money, according to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an international monitor.
法院认定，普拉霍特纽克的组织合谋在2013年至2015年间从银行盗窃10亿美元，并通过空壳公司洗钱。这笔金额相当于当时摩尔多瓦GDP的八分之一。另一起案件显示，在普拉霍特纽克掌权期间，根据国际监督机构“有组织犯罪与腐败报道项目”的说法，摩尔多瓦是一个洗钱计划的关键环节，涉及200亿美元来自俄罗斯的黑钱。