Minister of Youth buys more shares in the company that puts her integrity in doubt

• In May, Sorina Plăcintă undertook to buy more shares in Milcofil, the very company because of which she is being investigated by the National Integrity Agency

Mihnea Rău

The newly appointed Minister of Youth and Sports, Sorina Plăcintă, digs into her accounts to buy shares in a company it already had a controlling interest in, together with her husband. What tops it all off, is that Milcofil, which the minister pledged to acquire a 96% stake in two months ago, is the same company that"s giving the minister a headache due to the fact that it was not mentioned in the interest statement submitted by the Minister.

The National Integrity Agency began an investigation in the case of the newly appointed Minister of Youth and Sports, Sorina Plăcintă, alleging irregularities with the statement of interests she submitted, after the Hotnews.ro website recently revealed that Sorina Plăcintă failed to mention in her statement filed with the Senate, that she is a shareholder of Milcofil.

According to our sources, the current minister intended as far back as May 2009 to take over the stake owned by Sorste, one of the shareholders of Milcofil. At the end of May 2009, shareholders of Sorste agreed to sell their 626,000 shares stake in Milcofil to Sorina Plăcintă, who would pay for it in installments, at a price of 1.5 lei/share, or 940,000 lei in total. The Minister was supposed to pay 15% of the amount by the end of June 2009, with the remaining 799,145 lei, to be paid by June 30th, 2012 at the latest.

The virtually identical shareholders of Sorste and of Milcofil have decided to give Mrs. Plăcintă voting rights for all the shares she acquired from Sorste, even those not yet paid for in full. Even though the shareholders" decision was made in May, meaning the minister had already agreed to acquire the shares, however her income statement published on the Senate"s website, updated in June, fails to mention the promise to buy those shares.

Hotnews.ro revealed that the Minister did not declare her involvement in Milcofil.

The company hired the son of an inspector with the Tax authority, (ANAF), the daughter of the deputy of the Tax Fraud Brigade, the son of the financial administration department and the son of the head of the Public Finance Department of the Vrancea county.

The four people mentioned above also feature as auditors of the company.

According to information at the Trade Registry, updated on June 2nd, 2009, apart from Milcofil SA in which she holds a 91.84% stake, Sorina Plăcintă had interests in three other companies. The minister did not mention her stake in Milcofil (the former cotton mill of the Vrancea county, which was privatized in 1997.

The companies owned by the current minister, which operate in Focşani and Râmnicu Sărat, have undergone several mergers and split-offs in the past years. Following these reorganizations, a plot of land of almost 3 hectares in Râmnicu Sărat has been put up for sale by one of the companies owned by the husband of the current minister six months ago, for a price of EUR 2.3 million.