EXCLUSIVE  Ilie Carabulea has filed a criminal complaint against Nicolae Cinteză with the National Anti-corruption Department

Ilie Carabulea, a aa shareholder of Banca Comercială Carpatica (BCC), has recently filed a criminal complaint with the National Anti-Corruption Department (DNA) against Nicolae Cinteză, the head of the Oversight Division of the National Bank of Romania, of Marin Bogdan Viorel - head of department in the Oversight Division of the National Bank of Romania, as well as against the management of the bank for abuse in office and complicity to abuse in office, alleging a prejudice of one million Euros, according to the denunciation, viewed by "BURSA".

Carabulea accuses the BCC management of having concluded unprofitable consulting contracts, which had not been approved by the shareholders of the bank, nor stipulated in the budget, and the NBR heads of not doing their supervision job in that particular situation, even though they had been duly notified about it.

The DNA representatives were unable to offer information about the existence of this denunciation. They sent us the following response: "According to art. 25, paragraph 3 of the Guide concerning the relationship between the Judicial System in Romania and the Mass-Media approved through ruling no. 573/06.05.2014 of the plenum of the Supreme Council of Magistrates, «Information concerning the existence of a complaint or of a denunciation on the dockets of the criminal prosecution entities concerning the perpetration of possible crimes, as well as the information comprised in such complaints is not public (....)».

The representatives of the Management of Banca Comercială Carpatica told us that the executives of the bank do not have any knowledge of the criminal of the criminal complaint filed by Ilie Carabulea.

They told us: "We want to stress the fact that Banca Comercială Carpatica is a lender that operates in a fully transparent manner and in full compliance with the legislation in effect, being authorized and operating under the prudential supervision of the National Bank of Romania.

We also remind you that the bank is a company listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, and all the information concerning the financial statements and the activity of the bank are made public according to the legislation governing the stock markets".

Ilie Carabulea was detained, last Wednesday night, with a proposal for his subsequent arrest, together with his son, Oprea Carabulea. The two are being investigated by the DIICOT in the case of Carpatica Asigurări, on charges of creation of an organized crime group, abuse in office, tax evasion and money laundering.

In the Carpatica Asig - ASF case (the one in which Dan Radu Ruşanu has also been indicted), opened by the DNA two years ago and is currently on the courts' docket, Ilie Carabulea has been placed in pretrial conditional release, and is currently is waiting for his sentence, according to the local press of Sibiu.

Ilie Carabulea had managed to file the denunciation with the DNA prior to his new detainment.

He is accusing the management of the bank that 90% of the expenses did not have the approval and the mandate of the General Shareholder Meeting and were not included in the revenue and expense budget for the years 2013-2014.

He also claims that the bank's internal audit has uncovered serious illegalities when it comes to the status of the consulting contracts and other service contracts, a situation confirmed by the NBR, through the report drafted by the Supervisory division on April 27th, 2015.

Carabulea thinks that the NBR is guilty of not sanctioning the ones responsible for the facts mentioned above and of not ensuring that the management of Banca Carpatica has worked legally.

In the complaint, Carabulea states that the members of the audit commission were suspended by the management of the bank, after they presented the situation, and were barred from officially bringing the data to the attention of the NBR.

Nevertheless, Carabulea mentions that the members of the audit commission did report the situation to the NBR as well, directly to the personal e-mail addresses of Nicolae Cinteză and Bogdan Marin.

He alleges that through their lack of reaction, the two representatives of the Oversight department have allowed the plundering of the bank.

According to the criminal complaint, the NBR, through its Oversight Division, issued a monitoring report on April 27th, 2015, over the operations conducted by Banca Carpatica based on the consulting contracts concluded with foreign suppliers even as proof of a number of violations of the law with serious consequences was provided.

No other measures were subsequently taken, according to Ilie Carabulea, who states: "All of these deficiencies have been admitted by the management of the bank, according to address no 11568/May 22nd, 2015 issued by the NBR. These errors were not remedied, the amounts paid out were not returned to the bank".

Mr. Carabulea states that the plan of measures sent was a just a diversion in the communication between the bank and the NBR: "The management of the Oversight Division of the NBR is responsible of not having monitored the implementation of the proposed plan of measures and for not sanctioning in any concrete manner each of the guilty parties, even though it had the legal obligation to do so.

We feel that this lack of reaction has done nothing but encourage the management of the bank to conduct these damaging contracts and acquisitions, which have also had a serious secondary effect, however: the dramatic drop of the value of the bank's shares on the stock exchange, which has led to the sale of the majority block of shares owned by shareholder Carabulea Ilie at a far undervalued price, due to the abuse conducted by the people involved".

Ilie Carabulea's lawyer states: "Regardless of the problems that my client Carabulea Ilie has, the role of the NBR is to ensure the legality of the expenses made and to check the legal compliance of the bank's management without allowing for cover-ups and protecting the interests of any of the people currently managing the bank".

The contracts considered damaging, mentioned in the complaint, are the ones with Colins Group Ing, with Dab Expert Management, as well as with the leasing contract for the acquisition of new cars, with Autonom Services.

Carabulea mentions that he will appear as a joint plaintiff in the case for 1.5 million Euros, concerning the estimated loss caused by the aforementioned contracts and the loss incurred as a result of selling his shares at an undervalued price.

By the time the newspaper had gone to the printers', the National Bank of Romania had not yet sent us its opinion on the accusations made by Ilie Carabulea.

The BCC shareholder has recently sold, together with four other shareholders, 20% of BCC to Nextebank, which subsequently increased its holding to 54.79% of BCC, by participating, through a private placement, in the bank's share capital increase.

Carabulea, who still holds 18.53% of "Banca Comercială Carpatica", has summoned the bank's General Shareholder Meeting at the end of February, to replace the executive management and some of the members of the Supervisory Board.

According to the report sent to the Bucharest Stock Exchange at the time, Carabulea has asked the Supervisory Council to produce a report concerning the extent to which the Directorate has carried out the shareholders' decision of April 28th, 2015 concerning the approval of the Revenue and Expense budget for the year 2015 and of Directorate's oversight of the Bank's executives.

Carabulea has also asked that, based on the annual report and on the financial statements of the bank for the year 2015, the shareholders to decide on the management of the bank, including the dismissal of any member of the supervisory structure and/or directorate, and the appointment of new members, respectfully.

The National Bank of Romania has removed the voting rights of Carabulea and the shareholders who he was acting in concert with at Carpatica, since back in 2014, for failing to meet the reputation criteria required by the Regulations of the central bank.

The NBR took into account the fact that Ilie Carabulea has been sentenced to prison for offering bribes in 2012, and he subsequently came to the attention of the prosecutors of the National Anti-Corruption Department of offering bribes, forgery in deeds by private signature and abetment to abuse in office, in the "Carpatica Asig case".

As a result, the decisions concerning the bank of Sibiu have been made by the other shareholders.

Last year, Banca Comercială Carpatica pared down its losses by half, from 169.5 million lei to 85.43 million lei, and its assets have decreased 4.7%, to approximately 3.1 billion lei, according to the preliminary IFRS financial statements.

According to the draft budget for 2015, posted on the bank's website, the bank estimated a profit of 110,000 lei. The budget stipulated a solvency rate of 11.64% at the end of last year, but the bank reported a solvency rate of just 7%.