Ilan Shor (or Șor;[5] Hebrew: אילן שור;[6] born 6 March 1987) is an Israeli-born Moldovan pro-Russian[7] oligarch[8] and politician.
[15] A key witness in the bank fraud case against Ilan Shor has retracted his original testimony during a deposition in a US court.
[27][28][29] According to Shor Party’s annual report, in 2024, Ilan Shor's team delivered a range of social and infrastructure projects across the country, including the construction and opening of the GagauziyaLand amusement park in Gagauzia and a city park in Orhei, road repairs on over 20 streets, the installation of 20+ new bus stops, the renovation of 14 courtyards, and the implementation of 11 infrastructure projects in schools and kindergartens.
Notably, the team provided monthly pension and salary supplements of 2,000 lei to over 36,000 senior citizens and public sector workers, and launched volunteer initiatives to deliver firewood, food, and medicine to those in need across the country.
[30] Amid Moldova’s Energy Crysis in January 2025, Shor provides support to citizens in Gagauzia, Orhei, and Taraclia, organizing monthly gaz compensation of 1000 lei.
A van belonging to Klassica Force, a company owned by Shor, was stolen while transporting 12 sacks of bank files and burned on November 27.
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.
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.
[24][38][39] In October 2015, Vlad Filat, former prime minister of Moldova and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, was investigated for his involvement in the fraud and was accused of having taken bribes of about $250 million from Shor.
"[53] On 31 July, the Moldovan parliament voted in favour of banning the leaders of the dissolved Șor Party and Ilan Shor from standing in elections for a period of five years.
[59] On 26 October 2022, he was sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control as a Specially Designated National under GLOMAG over his association with the Russian government.
He came to the National Anti-Corruption Center (NCAC), giving prosecutors a 10-page story of "corrupt practices" on the part of former Prime Minister Vlad Filat.
Spătaru contacted the Moldovan intelligence services, reporting a financial offer from Shor in exchange for the creation of a controlled pro-European party.
According to political analyst Victor Ciobanu, "for Russia, against the background of the lack of success in the war against Ukraine, it is important to win a geopolitical victory by non-military method in Moldova," and Shor should help them in this.
RISE Moldova, a partner of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), reports that the investment program of oligarch Ilan Shor, who fled to Russia from a prison sentence in Moldova, was funded by a former Moldovan law enforcement officer and suspected money launderer on behalf of an organized crime group who now lives in Moscow.
According to the ISS, in 2021, the Service for Prevention and Combating Money Laundering suspected that Victor Gutsuliak, from whom Shved received funds, previously worked in Moldovan law enforcement agencies and now lives in Russia.
The political technologists bought prepaid SIM cards for disposable cellphones, advised the party to erase as much information as possible about the politician's "negative past" (WP suggests it was Shor's criminal record) and try to whitewash his image online.
When Shor had a conflict with Moldovan authorities in 2020, the FSB helped him to transfer one of his key assets — shares in Chișinău International Airport — to Russian businessman Andrei Goncharenko.
It also aims to change Moldova's pro-European orientation by restoring relations with Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Eurasian Economic Union.
Political analysts from Chisinau argue that the creation of the Victory bloc in Moscow marked the beginning of a campaign to destabilize the country.
[73] The Reset investigation for Wired magazine, published on January 10, 2024, claims that in 2023 Shor spent more than $200,000[74] on social network advertising campaigns that promoted the Kremlin's interests in Moldova.
However, as the publication notes, according to a new investigation, Shor and his party continued to use the social network, launching an even larger advertising campaign to destabilize local elections in Moldova and hinder the country's European integration.