The chain of offshore companies

"Shopping Center Holding" is officially controlled by a company based in Cyprus, called Karias Trading Limited, which is led by Dumitru Ciocoiu, one of the managers of the companies controlled by Puiu Popoviciu. The company that acquired the mall of Oradea is headquartered in Bucharest, at the same location as Băneasa Investment, which is developing the largest real estate project of Puiu Popoviciu, which is also the largest project in the country.

The Cypriot mailboxes are registered at the same address of Limassol, which is precisely where the "trustee offshore" company that manages them all operates. In other words, in the Cypriot tax haven, the offshore companies owned by Popoviciu are helmed by the same manager.

The scheme herewith shows the businesses that Dumitru Ciocoiu managed for Puiu Popoviciu. Even if it is hard to tell exactly who truly owns a company located in tax haven, based on the diagram herewith we can say that the new owner of the business in Oradea is Puiu Popoviciu, who also owns the well-known mall of Băneasa, which is located in the yard of the real estate project "Băneasa Investment", which also includes the business park - "Băneasa Business Technology Park", in which one of the members of the board is Dumitru Ciocoiu.

It is precisely the business of Băneasa that propelled Gabriel "Puiu" Popoviciu, last spring, to the forefront of a huge scandal, after being detained by the prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Department, together with Cornel Şerban, the head of the DGIPI (The General Department of Intelligence and Domestic Protection), and Petru Pitcovici, the Head of the Operations Division of the General Anticorruption Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, for trying to derail the investigation in the case concerning the acquisition of the plot of land of the University of Agricultural Science of Bucharest, on which the Băneasa Investment project is being developed.

• The creditors and the insolvency

The shares of "MLS Proiect Oradea" are owned in equal ratios by "Lazybush Developments" AG Switzerland and "McCabrey McCall" LLP of the UK. "MLS Proiect Oradea" was declared insolvent in November 2009, at the request of "Gauss Topo" SRL Oradea, specializing in construction works, and the Court of Bucharest appointed the "Casa de Insolvenţă Transilvania SPRL" of Cluj as trustee in bankruptcy. The developer of the Oradea mall, "MLS Proiect", took out two loans in 2008, from "Bank Austria Creditanstalt" AG and "Unicredit Ţiriac Bank", of 58 million Euros and 25.2 million lei. "MLS Proiect Braşov" and "McCabrey McCall" took another loan from "Banca Comercială Română" (BCR), for which they pledged half the shares in the project. The surety for the latter loan is "Lazybush Developments" AG.

• The Irish and the terrorist

"MLS Proiect Oradea" SRL, is presented as a subsidiary of Irish group "Mivan".

In their Romanian real estate business ventures, the Irish behind "Lazybush" crossed paths with the group led by Cornelius Michael Mc Fadden - who was previously sentenced to 15 years in jail in England, after being charged of organizing terrorist attacks, a man that was recently the subject of a comprehensive investigation published by the Romanian daily "Evenimentul zilei".

The first connection became visible as early as 2006, when the Irish of Lazybush acquired RGS Snagov Resort, by paying more than 2 million Euros. The man who intermediated the deal, was Syrian Eduard Mansour (a former shareholder of RGS), who was also a traditional business associate of McFadden.

Eduard Mansour and the former member of the "Provisional IRA" (the Irish Republican Army) were associates in seven Romanian companies. The two of them met since 2001, before McFadden even made his first real estate investment in Romania.

The second major deal between the Irish groups was sealed later: "Lazybush" and "Cornelius Michael Mc Fadden" (through the company called "Eir Consult") became partners in the development of a real estate project in Tâncăbeşti, which is still in the planning stage, du to problems in securing funding.

This last project will be developed on the land with a surface of approximately 1 million square meters that the former IRA insurgent bought on the shore of the Tâncăbeşti lake, very close to the DN1 area, just like the "Băneasa Investment" project owned by Puiu Popoviciu.

So, after selling Puiu Popoviciu the mall in Oradea, the Irish are now competing with the Romanian magnate on a project which is located approximately 20 km away from "Băneasa Investment".

< link >https://www.bursa.ro/on-line/how-puiu-popoviciu-acquired-the-first-mall-that-entered-insolvency-87940&s=english_section&articol=87940.html< link2 >How Puiu Popoviciu acquired the first mall that entered insolvency< link3 >