Marina Tauber sentenced to 7.5 years in prison; prosecutors requested 13 years
MP Marina Tauber has been sentenced to seven and a half years in a semi-closed women’s penitentiary for illegally financing the former “Șor” party, declared unconstitutional in June 2023. The sentence was handed down on September 30 by the Chișinău Court based in Buiucani, and will take effect from the date of her arrest. Tauber is currently not in Moldova and has been placed on the wanted list.
Marina Tauber’s lawyer, Sergiu Moraru, stated after the court session that “neither Marina Tauber nor Evghenia Guțul ever financed the former Șor Party.”
"They did not fund the party, and it was never their responsibility to do so, nor did they have the financial means. In Tauber’s case, it’s even clearer, as she submitted annual asset declarations that show no funds that could have been donations to the Șor Political Party. Therefore, the claim that she somehow financed or accepted financing from the Șor Party is false and unfounded. This is an invented version by the prosecutors, and everyone understands the truth. Today, the court prioritized the prosecutors’ invented version over the truth, despite the evidence we presented," Moraru said.
Case prosecutor Roman Porubin explained that the court applied a partially cumulative sentence for four counts of the indictment.
"The sentence falls within the limits provided by criminal law. We will review the court’s reasoning to understand the arguments that led to this sentence and will issue an official public position from the institution. Throughout the case, we allowed the defense to act, but we worked on the case. Justice does not require validation from politicians or participants in the trial. The soundness of the arguments in today’s verdict should convince the public of the decision’s fairness," Porubin added.
Marina Tauber faces several criminal cases, accused of accepting illegal funding of hundreds of millions of lei from convicted oligarch Ilan Șor’s group. Prosecutors claim that between January 1, 2022, and May 1, 2023, she controlled money flows coming from Russia, transported into Moldova by couriers connected to Șor.
The funds, estimated at 195 million lei, were allegedly used for unofficial party salaries and organizing anti-government protests.
In another case, Tauber is accused of falsifying financial reports during her mayoral campaign in Bălți. Prosecutors claim she received about 9.7 million lei from Șor’s group but reported only 750,000 lei, supposedly from 104 fictitious donors.
After Ilan Șor was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison, Tauber was also charged with interfering in justice for organizing protests at the Chișinău Court of Appeal and demanding the resignation of judges and prosecutors, whom she called “corrupt.” All cases were consolidated.
Tauber has not been in Moldova since January 2025
During investigations, Tauber was held in pre-trial detention, then under house arrest, and later under judicial control. Moldovan law does not allow detention for more than 12 months without a final court decision, and her preventive measure expired in December 2024.
Although she regularly attended court hearings, on January 7, 2025, after her travel ban expired, Tauber left for Istanbul and has not returned to Moldova.
In July 2025, she was seen in Moscow at the congress of the “Victorie” political bloc launched by Ilan Șor, having previously attended an economic forum in Saint Petersburg.
