Vlad Plahotniuc, once Moldova's richest man, has been sentenced to 19 years in jail in a banking fraud case known in the country as the "theft of the century".

Plahotniuc was found guilty of partaking in the 2014-15 fraud which involved $1bn (£748m) - at the time 12% of Moldova's total GDP.

He was personally accused of receiving over $40m from the fraud scheme and was ordered to pay around $60m (£44m) to the state in damages.

Plahotniuc, who denies any wrongdoing, was not present in court. His lawyer said he would appeal.

Reuters said the prosecutor's office argued it had data showing that Plahotniuc used the funds siphoned off from the banks for personal gain: the purchase of an Embraer Legacy 650 aircraft, the acquisition of property, paying for legal, medical, and tourism services, and business investments.

The former oligarch was Moldova's richest businessman and a prominent political figure when the "theft of the century" took place.

In 2014, loans worth $1bn were transferred in just two days to a series of UK- and Hong Kong-registered companies whose owners were unknown.

The government was forced to step in to bail the banks out, protecting depositors but creating a hole in the public finances equivalent to an eighth of Moldova's GDP.

A report later found that much of the funds had ended up in companies owned by pro-Russian oligarch Ilan Shor.

Plahotniuc was not immediately accused of involvement. But by 2019 he was facing corruption charges and fled Moldova after his Democratic Party was ousted from power.

He spent six years on the run and in July 2025 he was arrested at Athens while he was boarding a plane to Dubai and later extradited back to Moldova.

On Wednesday prosecutors said Plahotniuc had used "his influence in the public, political, financial and criminal environments" to allegedly coordinate "a network... in order to obtain illicit benefits".

Authorities added that to achieve this goal Plahotniuc allegedly facilitated Shor's entry into the shareholdings of some commercial banks, leading to fraud.

Shor is now living in Moscow and has recently been accused of being the mastermind behind a pro-Russian vote-buying and vote-influencing scheme in Moldova.

Plahotniuc faces several other long-running criminal cases in Moldova but denies involvement in any of them.

His lawyers maintained that the prosecution's stance was "politically motivated".