A former chairman of the Proprietatea Fund is asking for his money in court

• Alexandru Păunescu wants the 30,000 Euros that he awarded himself while he was managing the Fund, as he claims that he was only paid for his chairman position, and not for his general manager position

The Proprietatea Fund was sued by his old chairman, Alexandru Păunescu, who considers that he is still entitled to another 30,000 Euros, after managing the Fund for a year, between May 2006-November 2007.

The 30,000 Euros are supposed to represent the wage that Păunescu thinks he was entitled to for the period in which he served only as chairman of the Fund, when the positions of chairman and managing director were not separate, sources from the management of the Proprietatea Fund claim.

"Mr. Păunescu has considered that he deserves compensation for the position of managing director, besides the one of chairman, which is why he has awarded himself a salary of almost one billion old lei (100,000 RON) for the period in which he led the Fund. After leaving the Fund, he returned the money because of the scandal which appeared in the press, but he then decided to go to court", the quoted sources claim.

The lawsuit was filed very shortly after Alexandru Păunescu stepped down from the management of the Fund.

When contacted by BURSA, Alexandru Păunescu was wary of making any statements, and only said that he filed the lawsuit a few months after leaving the Fund because he needed time to detach: "I didn"t think it was fair to sue the company I worked for right away. I waited for some time to allow myself to let go". Mr. Păunescu however confirmed the amount which is the object of the lawsuit.

Alexandru Păunescu was appointed as manager of the Fund in the spring of 2006, during the Tăriceanu government, replacing Nicolae Ivan. Up to that moment, Păunescu had been working in the Romanian National Bank.

The tenure of Alexandru Păunescu as manager of the Proprietatea Fund was a rather controversial one, as he bet his job that the Fund would be listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in 2008.

The majority shareholder of the Fund however, had different plans, so in the autumn of 2007, Alexandru Păunescu was replaced by Mircea Ursache, as chairman of the Supervisory Commission of the Fund. The government later issued an emergency ordinance which set up a dual-management system for the Fund, by separating the positions of Chairman and Managing Director of the Fund.

A few months later, in March 2008, Alexandru Păunescu failed to get reelected on the Supervisory Board of the Fund, as he was sacrificed by the Ministry of Finance (the majority shareholder at the time), in order to make room on the board for the representatives of the fund"s private shareholders. Alexandru Păunescu then returned to the National Bank, where he currently works as the head of the legal department.

Contacted by BURSA, Ionuţ Popescu, the current managing director of the Fund, declined to comment the litigation between the Fund and Alexandru Păunescu. He said that he needs time to get familiar with the lawsuit, as the Fund is involved in so many lawsuits that it is impossible for him to know them all by heart.