Insolvency administrators face pressure after state enterprise inquiry
After the Public Property Agency was publicly reprimanded by the parliamentary commission investigating state enterprises, Prime Minister Vasile Tofan demanded that Justice Minister Vladislav Cojuhari clean up the insolvency management sector and remove ineffective administrators.
At a government meeting on 30 September, Tofan criticised the way insolvency cases are managed in Moldova. According to him, some administrators have turned the process into a large business.
“I know them from a previous life, this caste. Some of them are untouchable,” Tofan said, referring to insolvency administrators.
The prime minister explained that an insolvency administrator is supposed to manage the situation of a company that cannot pay its creditors, including through measures to rescue the business and ensure debts are paid. In Moldova, however, he said the field had come to be dominated by people who turned bankruptcy procedures into a business.
“In our country, unfortunately, very toxic people dominate this area. They have turned it into big business. They come in and effectively attack companies, sometimes over small loans, and they also mock families and businesses,” the prime minister said.
Tofan tells justice minister not to back down
Tofan cited statistics which, in his view, show that order had long been neglected in the sector.
“In 2022 there were no disciplinary sanctions, and in 2024 two warnings were issued. Look, recently five sanctions have been applied against these people, and their licences have been withdrawn,” he said.
According to the prime minister, those who have been sanctioned are now trying to preserve their right to continue working.
“Now there is a fight over insolvency administrators, and we must take it to the end. Mr Cojuhari, I know you have been attacked recently. Please do not show weakness and continue putting order in this area,” Tofan told the justice minister.
The remark was a direct political signal: the government wants the clean-up presented not as an isolated disciplinary process, but as a campaign against a protected professional group that has operated for years with little effective oversight.
Commission says companies remain insolvent for decades
The issue of insolvency administrators was also raised by the parliamentary commission examining state enterprises. According to the commission’s chairman, Dinu Plîngău, some companies remain insolvent for 15 or even 20 years, while the state continues paying administrators between 16,000 and 32,000 lei a month.
“This is waste. If companies, as numerous examples show, spend 15 to 20 years in the procedure, just calculate how much more money we will lose in this situation,” Plîngău said.
The commission is expected to present its final report in early October.
“Sad news from the government for Dmitri Cucu,” blogger Sergiu Ungureanu commented sarcastically after Tofan’s remarks.
Who is Dmitri Cucu? He is a Moldovan lawyer and licensed insolvency administrator who has appeared in a series of journalistic investigations and in disciplinary proceedings at Moldova’s Ministry of Justice.
Cucu case puts the sector under scrutiny
In September 2026, the Commission for the Authorisation and Discipline of Insolvency Administrators (CADAA) under the Ministry of Justice examined Cucu’s case following a complaint from the State Tax Inspectorate. He is suspected of violations in the management of Tirex-Petrol, one of Moldova’s largest filling station networks. The damage to the state is estimated at around 18 million lei.
Cucu himself claims he is being “executed” on the orders of Justice Minister Vladislav Cojuhari and has publicly appealed to Prime Minister Vasile Tofan to stop what he called a “reprisal”. The commission’s meetings were disrupted three times: first Cucu said he felt unwell, then he challenged the entire commission, and later his lawyers cited the end of working hours.
Cucu has also appeared in investigations linked to Agrounire and suspicious contracts worth millions of euros. The Moldovan press has called him the country’s “most resilient” insolvency administrator.
For Tofan, the battle over insolvency administrators is now being framed as a test of whether the state can reclaim a sector long treated as a closed circle. For critics, the question is whether this is a real clean-up, or another selective campaign in which the government chooses which “untouchables” to touch.
