"Desintco" shareholders strike off their company

• The company in which the brother of president Traian Băsescu as a shareholder gets dissolved, one year after its attempt to enter the arms market

The three associates that were still left in the notorious "Desintco" company - after Mircea Băsescu, the brother of Romanian president Traian Băsescu, and the daughter of Aurel Cazacu, former chief of the Military Industry Department of the Ministry of the Economy decided to pull out - recently decided to strike off the company, according to a decision published in the Official Gazette.

The official reason provided for this action was that the company was being dissolved.

The topic of the "Desintco" business caused a huge scandal in August 2009, after "BURSA" was the first to publish a comprehensive article discussing the players who founded the new business in a hurry using a travel agency as the shell.

The people involved in the new business were extremely diverse: from the former deputy of the head of the Army"s procurement department, to the brother of the current Romanian president and to the daughter of the head of the former chief of the Military Industry Department of the Ministry of the Economy, to two representatives of American companies operating in the military industry.

At the time, BURSA revealed how having the brother of the country"s president involved in a company operating in the military sector, in association with former and current heads of the military industry, as well as with representatives of American military companies meant that Traian Băsescu was involved in a conflict of interest, since he is also the head of the Romanian Supreme Defense Council, which among other things, is charged with purchasing equipment for the army.

Mircea Băsescu withdrew from the company (in which he held 30%) shortly after the scandal began, at the request of his presidential brother.

It was also then, that the daughter of Aurel Cazacu withdrew from the company. Aurel Cazacu resigned from his position in the Ministry of the Economy after the scandal burst.

All of the above meant that out of the five initial associates, the company was left with just three: Cristian Geamănu, the representative of "General Defence" Co, Romeo Oiţă, the representative of American company "Navigator Development" and Ion Eftimie Sandu, who had just left his position as deputy to the head of the Army procurement department. All three were actively involved in the organization of the military technology fair - Naval Defense Exhibition (NDE) Constanţa.

Last year, the company had an insignificant turnover, of just 22,000 lei, which may have come from its initial operation as a travel agency. The small turnover of the travel agency "Envy Tour" after it changed its name to "Desintco" shows that it never did the business it was created for.