ANOTHER GAFFE OF THE ROMANIAN LEGAL SYSTEM The prosecutors' office drops the case against Cristian Sima

The Prosecutors' Office of the High Court of Cassation and Justice has ruled not to begin prosecution against Cristian Sima, the former CEO of Sibex/broker who fled Romania last year, after several of his clients accused him of having lost their money, by exceeding the mandate he had been given through the contracts they had signed with him.

The decision has been filed by the lawyer of Cristian Sima in the civil lawsuit by which Florian Goldstein (MAKE), the owner and chairman of the BURSA newspaper, has sued the broker and together with him, WBS Holding, WBS România, WBS Consulting Services, Sibex and the CNVM (currently the ASF).

MAKE was among the customers of the company of Cristian Sima, WBS Holding, and in summer last year, the brokers of the firm refused to close down his account.

The Prosecutors' Office states that it has decided not to begin prosecution of Sima because, "based on the investigations conducted, it has been found that one of the constitutive elements of the offense is not met, specifically, on the objective side, it has been found that the action required by law for the offense stipulated in article 297 of the Law 297/2004 to exist" (of the stock market) has not been committed.

Aside from the fact that a mistake has slipped in, because the Law 297 only has 291 articles, and therefore article 297 does not exist, the civil court will have to decide on the relevance of the decision of the Prosecutor's Office in the "MAKE vs Sima" case.

The owner of the BURSA newspaper did not file a criminal complaint, because it did not represent a solution for recouping the loss, the procedure was complicated, and the prosecutors are slow in conducting their investigation.

The Romanian National Securities Commission (CNVM) publicly announced that WBS Holding, the off-shore which Sima was operating through, which was registered in the British Virgin Islands, is not an entity under its supervision.

Nevertheless, in October 2012, CNVM began an investigation at the headquarters of WBS România, where Cristian Sima was a shareholder and president prior to taking over the position of CEO of Sibex. Following the investigation of the CVNM, WBS România has been shut down. Cristian Sima was also banned from the stock market for a period of five years.

This information was sent by the Financial Oversight Authority, in July, to the Government's Department for the relationship with the Parliament, following this inquiry. In the address in question, the ASF specifies that WBS Holding is registered in the British Virgin Islands and that it has contacted the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of Great Britain in order to determine whether WBS Holding Ltd. was under its jurisdiction. The response received from the UK FSA was negative, as the requirements for the application of the EU legislation are not met, according to the ASF.

Allegedly, the clients of Cristian Sima include former finance minister (and current first vice-president of the ASF) Daniel Dăianu, former minister of Justice Cătălin Predoiu, businessman Puiu Popoviciu, Tudor Chirilă, Andreea Raicu, Irina Schrotter.