Illegal Imperforate Stamps of the Republic of Moldova

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MoldovaStamps.org has been given a reliable eyewitness account of the existence of at least one, unreleased, imperforate and ungummed copy of every postage stamp, issued by Posta Moldovei, from Michel catalogue number 495 (December 2004) to Michel catalogue number 728 (December 2010), and that they are being offered for private sale on the international market.

For legal reasons, the names of the eyewitness and the stamp dealer in question cannot be published at this time. MoldovaStamps.org awaits corroborating evidence before these names may be made public.

The stamp dealer had described these items as "proofs" and verbally confessed to the eyewitness that all of these stamps were smuggled out of the State printing company “Tipografia Centrala” by an unnamed accomplice whom, he said, was an employee of Tipografia Centrala.

The stamp dealer also verbally confessed to the eyewitness that such smuggling activities commenced in 2004 and that he stopped buying imperforate stamps at the end of 2010. However, the dealer made an additional offer to arrange the supply of all the stamps issued from January 2011 until July 2011, in imperforate form, if the eyewitness was interested in buying that material too.

The imperforate stamps were offered for sale at a price of 100 euro for each stamp (approximate total value of 20,000 euros).

Realizing the criminal nature of the offer, the eyewitness refused to purchase any of the material and after some serious contemplation, decided to inform MoldovaStamps.org about the details. MoldovaStamps.org, with the eyewitness’ full permission, immediately made a complete report to the Moldovan State anti-corruption office, the CNA, in March 2013.

Despite the stamp dealer’s description of the stolen stamps as "proofs", it should be noted that Moldovan postage stamps are usually printed in sheets of 10 or more units, before being processed in the perforation and gumming machines. Therefore it would be very difficult to cut only a single stamp from a complete sheet, without anyone noticing. On this basis, MoldovaStamps.org believes that it was likely that complete sheets would have been stolen. Evidence for this could be found of the web site of a well-known international stamp dealer in the USA, where complete imperforate minisheets of 10 stamps for the 2005 and 2006 "Chess" issues were available for sale at a price of US$1,400 for each sheet. The report to the CNA included the information about this material.

On April 18, MoldovaStamps.org received a letter from the CNA Head of Division, Mihaila Viorel, stating that they were closing the case for the following reasons:

1. "The issues raised by you in the petition were not confirmed, and results of data verification obtained were not sufficient to trigger an investigation into criminal aspects.”

2. "As for the manufacture postage stamps, it is noted that this process requires special equipment for printing and perforating, thus making it impossible to manufacture by anyone, without having such equipment. However, it can not justify the idea that stamps are forged as equipment for their manufacture is quite expensive, but the stamps that are claimed to have been forged are very insignificant amount.”

3. "Additionally, we must bring to your attention the fact that the stamp shops of Moldova are open to freely to trade stamps of each edition, not set any obstacles or limitations in this regard. Typically, stamps are purchased or exchanged by members of the Union of Philatelists of the Republic of Moldova, of which, the (accused) citizen… is a member.”

MoldovaStamps.org responds to point 1: The CNA has not specified what "data verification" activities they undertook. It is known that the eyewitness was never contacted by them. Also, the dealer in the USA was not contacted, even though to have done so would have easily established him as a corroborating witness. Indeed, the only person that is known to have been contacted by the CNA was the accused stamp dealer himself.

MoldovaStamps.org responds to point 2: At no time were allegations of forgery made. The allegations were about theft and the trade in stolen, imperforate materials. The CNA’s mention of "special equipment" and especially of "perforating" equipment, is therefore invalid.

MoldovaStamps.org responds to point 3: The Union of Philatelists does not automatically confer any special legitimacy on the business activities of its members. Mention of the Union’s name, in the context of this matter, is irrelevant.

The contents of the April 18 letter from the CNA clearly indicates their failure to comprehend the details of the complaint and that their investigation was cursory and was ended prematurely.

MoldovaStamps.org sent a reply to the CNA on May 8, in which all of these points were stated. There has been no reaction from them to date.

MoldovaStamps.org has now contacted the dealer in the USA, directly. He was unaware of the nature of the imperforate material and had never been contacted by the CNA. Upon hearing the news, the dealer immediately removed all the imperforate material from his database and told MoldovaStamps.org, "I stopped buying these issues in 2006 as I had a queasy feeling about them..".

Whilst the American dealer will not confirm the name of the seller directly to MoldovaStamps.org, he does state that he is willing to co-operate fully with any official, government investigation.

MoldovaStamps.org had been aware of the existence of small quantities of imperforate stamps and sheets for several years, but until now, it was understood that this material had been released into circulation in error. Therefore, MoldovaStamps.org was happy to include such material in the catalogue, since it would be of great interest to collectors. Now that the truth is known, MoldovaStamps.org is making a public declaration that all imperforate material (stamps and sheets), relating to issues from Michel catalogue number 495 (December 2004) to Michel catalogue number 775 (October 2011) is illegal and has no value either in philatelic or in monetary terms.

Other questions remain to be answered:

1. The identity of the employee of Tipografia Centrala who was responsible for the theft of the material has yet to be discovered.
2. The exact quantities and the formats of any other philatelic material that may have been stolen has yet to be discovered.
3. The extent to which stolen imperforate materials have already been sold on the international market needs to be discovered.
4. The current location of and quantities of still unsold imperforate material needs to be discovered.

MoldovaStamps.org has now provided full details of this matter to the Union of Philatelists of the Republic of Moldova (UFRM). In a reply, the President of the Union, Mr Serghei Cusnir, says that he is “shocked" by the information and states that he will be taking the matter directly to Posta Moldovei and to the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications.

MoldovaStamps.org appeals to all collectors and dealers who have any information about this subject, to send the details to us by email at . All information will be treated in total confidence.

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