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Now, Sorin Popa seems to be unfindable, and he was not present in yesterday's DIICOT hearings. He has not been officially indicted, because he has not been informed of the charges against him, according to some judicial sources. It remains to be seen whether the former BRD vice-president will show up at the DIICOT or the prosecutors will need to issue a warrant for his arrest as defaulting witness, as per the procedure.
DIICOT prosecutors have announced on May 19th, that they have indicted all the 28 suspects in the BRD case, which include Remus Truică, former chief-of-cabinet of Adrian Năstase, Claudiu Cercel, vice-president of BRD, as well as Adrian Sârbu, the owner of Mediafax, and journalist Sorin Roşca Stănescu. The total loss caused to the bank is 43.5 million Euros.
DIICOT has placed Truică and his former right-hand man and driver Aparaschivei Cristian-Relu under conditional release.
Georgiana Hosu, the interim head of the DIICOT, said: "Between 2008-2012, the suspects have set up a an organized criminal group initiated by Remus Truică, which had as its purpose taking out loans from BRD based on forged documentation. That group included people that held executive positions with the bank and on the lending committee of the bank, as well as people that held management positions in branches, notaries, evaluators and businesspeople. A total of 17 loans have been taken out, all of which have yet to be repaid".
Georgiana Hosu said that the real beneficiary of 15 of those loans was Remus Truică, even though they were taken out through proxies.
Part of the money was invested in luxury real estate and boats, according to prosecutor Hosu, who mentioned that BRD provided the DIICOT all the support in this case and has made available to prosecutors all the necessary documentation pertaining to the fraudulent loans. BRD has filed a criminal complaint in this case, according to the quoted source.
Answering the questions of the press, the interim head of the DIICOT said that Prince Paul is a witness in this case, and that Sorin Popa, former BRD vice-president has also been cited to appear in court.
Sorin Popa did not attend the hearings yesterday, and judicial sources told us that he will come in at a later date to be announced in the coming period. If Sorin Popa refuses to come in for questioning, the prosecutors can bring him in with a warrant, according to our sources.
BRD CEO Philippe Lhotte, told us: "BRD hails the progress made in the investigation by the DIICOT concerning the loan fraud committed against the bank. This investigation refers to old cases that we have notified the prosecution bodies about three years ago, and which concern facts uncovered by the internal audit services of BRD and Societe Generale. The financial impact concerning these cases has been fully provisioned at the time.
I am however, very surprised at the investigation in this case of two deputy directors in office, against whom the BRD has clearly filed no complaint, and in whom I remain completely confident. I am optimistic when it comes to the evolution of the case as far they are concerned.
BRD will continue to cooperate with a maximum of transparency with the authorities to see this case through".
In a press release, the prosecutors state: "There is reasonable suspicion that at the end of 2007, at the level of the executive management of BRD, an organized criminal faction was initiated and set up in order to grant loans, in violation of both internal and NBR lending regulations, to individuals and/or companies. This criminal activity led to the obtaining of significant amounts through the subsequent committing of fraud, which caused the bank to incur a loss of 43,500,000 Euros. Two of the leaders of the criminal faction, using their positions held within BRD, have recruited several of their subordinates and controlled their activity. By inadequately fulfilling their job duties or by failing to carry them out the subordinates in question have facilitated the fraudulent granting of 17 loans to individuals or legal entities, fully aware that none of those that met the minimum requirements of the lending norms and that the properties that had been used as collateral had been overvalued by the evaluators approved by the bank".
The prosecutors have stated that, in order for the criminal activity to function, the suspects have secured the support of the other members of the Credit Committee of the BRD Main Headquarters, specifically suspects Cercel Duca Alexandru Claudiu and Gavrilescu Gabriela, who, in violation of their job duties, have approved the loans granted fraudulently mostly by the Europa and Primăverii agencies which operate within the Dorobanţi Branch of the BRD Group.
According to the DIICOT, another leader of the criminal faction is Remus Truică: "He is also the main beneficiary of the criminal activity, of the 17 loans granted fraudulently by BRD, 15 of them were granted to individuals or companies which were under his direct control, thus obtaining the amount of 35,000,000 Euros, which was, for the most part, moved abroad by including it in various financial circuits through accounts opened in Monaco, Switzerland, Austria and Cyprus, accounts controlled directly by defendants Remus Truică and Aparaschivei Cristian Relu and subsequently used by them to acquire luxury goods, boats and properties".
The prosecutors state that Truică has also coordinated the creation of five companies represented and managed by Aparaschivei, his confidant and by suspects Coconete Ilie Marius and S.N.E, who also fraudulently took out loans from BRD.
The criminal group initially organized by the leaders of the faction was also joined by suspects Sorin Roşca Stănescu and Sârbu Adrian, the owner of Mediafax, who have taken out loans for their own benefit under the same fraudulent conditions as the ones in the case of Truică's loans, according to the DIICOT press release.
The charges against the 28 defendants are: creation of an organized criminal faction, abuse in office, abetting criminal abuse in office, complicity to money laundering, abetting fraud, abuse in office, complicity to fraud and forgery and forgery in deeds by private signature.
Upon leaving the hearing yesterday, Remus Truică declined to make any statements, saying only that he was informed of the charges against him in the case and that the situation would become clear in time. When asked by the press whether he was the head of the faction, Truică said he was innocent and that it was a known fact that he had loans taken from BRD which were no longer an issue. He refused to comment on the relationship between him and Sorin Popa.
Remus Truică's lawyer, however, said that he has asked the prosecutors for a new hearing, which has been scheduled for the beginning of June, to allow Truică to defend himself once the evidence in the case is reviewed and in order to make clarifications concerning Truică's relationship with the other suspects. He said that precautionary measures have been decided in the case concerning the plots of land and the buildings owned by Truică, up to the amount of the loss caused in the case.
As a result of the speculation in the press, Truică's lawyer mentioned that Truică has nothing to do with the money that Elena Udrea borrowed from BRD, which are not the object of this case, as the case was severed by the National Anti-Corruption Department. Udrea had borrowed more than 3 million Euros from BRD.
Judicial sources told us that the fraud of BRD is severed from the notorious case of the bank frauds initiated by the DIICOT in 2012, in which 56 defendants were arraigned. Some of them are businessman Marius Locic, brothers Vasile and Ioan Creştin and several other heads of bank branches. In that case, the DIICOT prosecutors have found that Adrian Martiş as branch manager of BRD - Grup Unirea and Andrei Nanu, as sales manager of BRD - Grup Dorobanţi, have coordinated a criminal faction within the institution which they were leading, which has led to a fraud of 85 million Euros.
The DIICOT prosecutors have found, at the end of 2012, that "the faction was supported in various stages by several people, who have acted in a coordinated manner within a well determined period, with a well established, clear structure and with predetermined functions within the group", in the report of the investigation with the proposal to arrest Adrian Martiş (executive director at BRD Unirea), Andrei Nanu (sales manager at BRD Dorobanţi), Elena Blaga, Orlando Ionuţ Ghiorghe (evaluator), Andrei Suditu, Niculae Sandu, Ioan Creştin, Dumitru Benga, Vrânceanu Jenica Barbu, Marius Locic, Liliana Liuba Alexandrescu (notary), Claudia Maria Peter and Camilia Damiela Pop (notary).
According to the document, directors Martiş and Nanu have implemented in the banking institutions that they were in charge of a working methodology that caused many of their subordinates to repeatedly violate the legal provisions and the regulations in effect concerning the granting and renewal of certain loans.
At the time, the central press reported that Vasile Blaga, at the time president of the PDL, Liviu Popa, former head of the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police (IGPR), as well as Bebe Ionescu, father to the husband of Elena Băsescu, Bogdan Ionescu, had been wiretapped as part of the investigation.
Vasile Blaga has denied, however, having ever intervened in favor of anybody, to help them get a loan, as well as knowing the Creştin brothers. "I've never intervened in favor of anybody taking out a loan. I've never ever talked to these Creştin individuals", the PDL leader said.
The central press also noted that the transcriptions of this case show how Bebe Ionescu would lobby the decision makers in the management positions of BRD for certain people or companies to get loans, even though they did not qualify for them. Former BRD vice-president, Sorin Popa allegedly supplied investigators with information about significant amounts of money that arrived to the pensions controlled by the father of president Traian Băsescu's daughter, according to the quoted sources.
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