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Tim Whewell investigates how a billion dollars has mysteriously disappeared from banks in Moldova – equivalent to more than an eighth of the country’s GDP. The trail leads through Britain to Latvia and to off-shore tax havens. Who is the secretive 28-year-old businessman investigators say masterminded the fraud? And how did he manage to win this week’s mayoral election in his family’s home town despite being charged in connection with the banking collapse?

(Photo: Ilan Shor in his Chișinău residence)