Elena Udrea strikes off its "Dalli International" business

• The current minister has let go of the last of the businesses that she was involved in, which tied her to the controversial affair of the parking spots of Bucharest

• Elena Udrea had ties with the Niro group, which is now at the center of a tax evasion scandal

• Attorney Ana Maria Topoliceanu, which has been appointed as head of the National Investment Company, was an associate of Elena Udrea in the company "Elan Group"

For a long time, the company had been affiliated with the controversial business which managed the parking lots of Bucharest.

The decision came into effect last week, when it was published in the Official Gazette.

Elena Udrea joined the Dalli business almost seven years ago, when it acquired over half of company from her father-in-law, Victor Cocoş, who had in turn become a shareholder just a little bit earlier, acquiring the shares from the managers of the company, Radu Jianu and Gabriel Lucov.

Over the last few years, the Dalli International Co company, controlled by the Cocoş-Udrea, was the object of a major controversy, because it was repeatedly mistaken for the other company called Dalli, which managed the parking lots of Bucharest.

Dalli International Co is the third company in which the current minister of Tourism was a shareholder over the last eight years, and all of them have been dissolved in the interim.

The most controversial business that Elena Udrea was involved in was the real estate business of Afumaţi, set up in 2006, in association with her husband Dorin Cocoş, and with Niro "95 Impex, controlled by businessman Dumitru Nicolae.

Daily "România liberă" yesterday published a comprehensive article about the investigations of the prosecutors of the DIICOT (the Department to Counter International Organized Crime and Terrorism) aimed at the Asian factions operating in the retail complex "Dragonul Roşu" (ed. note: Red Dragon), operated by the Niro group of companies, controlled by Dumitru Nicolae.

The prosecutors are investigating a damage of 600 million dollars, money which was taken out of the country by way of illegal transactions and money laundering, according to the aforementioned newspaper, which also writes that the investigating officers have found out that some of the leaders of the faction had ties to the Niro group of companies controlled by Dumitru Nicolae.

The business that the Cocoş family set up with the Niro group was dissolved the same year it was incorporated (2006), after Mugur Ciuvică publicly criticized the association between the current minister and a controversial character such as Dumitru Nicolae.

Another company that Elena Udrea was a shareholder in was Elan Group, in which she was associated with Ana Maria Topoliceanu. Mrs. Topoliceanu was appointed in management positions in several state companies controlled by the ministry of Tourism, after Elena Udrea became minister, and she currently serves as general manager of the National Investment Company, which is also controlled by the Ministry led by Elena Udrea.