CHISINAU: A billion dollars is a lot for Europe's poorest state of Moldova -- particularly when it disappears.
Anti-corruption prosecutors and American auditors have been searching the books for clues about the mysterious transactions, an embarrassment for the ex-Soviet state on track for EU membership.
The scandal has even threatened to destabilise the banking system in the country of 3.5 million people.
The case of the vanishing billion came to light when the Central Bank of Moldova discovered that three banks have given out loans worth a total of $1 billion, or 15 percent of the impoverished ex-Soviet state's GDP.
The financial establishments -- Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala and Unibank -- hold about a third of all bank assets in the country, including money for pension payments.
The transactions apparently happened over the course of several days, just before the parliamentary elections in late November, in which pro-European Union parties narrowly squeezed pro-Russian representatives out of the majority.
The recipients of the funds have not been identified and now the money seems as good as gone.
"I cannot explain how one can steal such a large amount of money from such a small country," the EU representative in Moldova Pirkka Tapiola said recently.
A report by a parliamentary committee that looked into the matter and was leaked to the press said some of the money may have been transferred to four Russian banks.
The leader of the country's socialist opposition, Igor Dodon, said he suspects the money has ended up in the accounts of various offshore firms "where the trace was lost."
"The money has been allocated with the knowledge it would never be repaid," he told AFP.
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