Israeli-born oligarch said to be behind Russian interference in Moldovan EU vote
Authorities claim Tel Aviv-born Ilan Shor tried to bribe 130,000 people to vote ‘no’ in EU referendum; Shor denies interfering, Russia says vote was ‘unfree’
CHISINAU, Moldova — Moldovan officials have accused 37-year-old Israeli-born billionaire and convicted fraudster Ilan Shor of playing a leading role in Russian-backed interference aimed at influencing the Moldovan elections and derailing the country’s course to EU membership.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Sunday’s referendum was marred by “unprecedented” outside interference, with “clear evidence” that “foreign forces hostile to our national interests” had aimed to buy off 300,000 votes.
Moldovans voted in favor of EU accession with a slim majority of 50.46 percent in the referendum.
In the run-up to the vote, authorities said there had been Moscow-backed meddling attempts spearheaded by fugitive tycoon Shor, including an effort to bribe 130,000 people to vote “no” and support a specific candidate at the election. Shor has denied wrongdoing.
The Kremlin, which denies interfering, denounced the referendum as “unfree”, casting doubt on what it said was a “hard-to-explain” increase in votes in favor of Sandu and the EU, and challenging her to “present evidence” of meddling.
Moldova’s ties with Moscow have deteriorated in recent years after Sandu condemned the invasion of Ukraine and diversified the country’s energy supplies away from Russia.
Shor was born in Tel Aviv on 6 March 1987, but his family returned to Moldova in the 1990s. His father, Miron Shor, was a businessman with interests in duty-free and travel retail, among others. When his father died in 2005, then-18-year-old Shor took over the family business ‘ShorHolding’ and expanded its reach, buying TV stations, an insurance company, and the Moldovan soccer team, FC Milsami Orhei.
In June 2017 Shor was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for his involvement in the theft of one billion dollars from Moldova’s banking system in 2014, the largest bank fraud in the country’s history.
Shor was president of Banca de Economii, one of three banks involved in the so-called theft of the century. He was also head of Dufremol, Moldova’s largest seller of duty-free goods.
He remained free pending his appeal, during which he ran for office in Moldova’s 2019 parliamentary elections, and won. His party was banned in 2023 accused of “malign influence campaigns” for Russia.
While under house arrest pending an appeal, he fled in 2019 to Israel where he lived until 2024. According to Moldovan media, he now lives in Russia and obtained Russian citizenship this year.
In 2023, the appeal court doubled his jail sentence to 15 years in absentia on graft charges and froze all his assets.
The Times of Israel Community.