Was Daniel Ţepeş forced to resign?!

It seems things aren"t what they seem a bit different in the case of the resignation of Daniel Ţepeş (of March 25th) from the Board of Directors of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB), a topic on which "BURSA" has already written four articles and which was mentioned in three others.

Based on the statements of Grzegorz Konieczny, the fund manager of the Proprietatea Fund (who admitted that the invitation he received to join the Board of Directors of the BSE was not spontaneous), as well as on statements made by first hand sources, which seem to prove that some "people in the know" expected a resignation from the Board of the Exchange (about a week prior to the resignation of Ţepeş), I expressed the opinion that the selling of BSE stock by Ţepeş prior to his resignation, could be considered insider trading.

Well, I still stand by that statement, even though it is possible that everything happened a bit differently than I would have expected.

What follows is not an absolute statement, but rather a (very) likely interpretation of how it all went down.

Ţepeş did not expect he would have to resign!

The man wasn"t going to leave the scene when he sold his shares, so he must have felt extremely wronged by the articles published in "BURSA".

A resignation from the Council of the Exchange had been scheduled some time before, except it wasn"t that of Ţepeş.

According to some reports from people very close to the matter, the one who was supposed to resign from the Board of Directors was ..."Ţepeş" man", Cosmin Gheorghiu, not Daniel Ţepeş himself!

This version fits nicely with the idea that "the chief wheeler and dealer" Ţepeş actually sold his shares to the manager of the "Fondul Proprietatea" above the market (on the other hand, the fact that "Franklin Templeton" bought BSE shares is presented as certain).

The markup came from the "bonus" that was offered to "Franklin Templeton": a seat on the Board of the Exchange.

After receiving payment for the stock he sold, Ţepeş was supposed to hand over to the buyer a seat on the Board of the Exchange.

But Cosmin Gheorghiu refused to step down when his employer Ţepeş asked him to resign from the Board.

Finding himself cornered, Daniel Ţepeş had to resign, sacrificing himself to free up a seat for Grzegorz Konieczny of "Franklin Templeton".

One way or another, he kept his word.

What happened next is well known: the weekend after his own resignation, Ţepeş immediately fired Cosmin Gheorghiu from HTI, (or forced him to resign).

Perhaps there were some cold calculations involved in this action, aside from the anger against his disobedient employee: maybe Ţepeş thought that by cutting Gheorghiu loose, he would cause him to be replaced on the Board of the Exchange by another one of his men. Perhaps Daniel Ţepeş thought he might succeed in replacing Cosmin Gheorghiu himself.

"I"ve changed my mind", Ţepeş said after his first resignation.

It is perfectly possible that he did the same thing this time (how right we at "BURSA" were when we published an article titled "We don"t believe you anymore ...", on March 25th, when publishing the news of the resignation of Ţepeş, less than an hour after he had handed it in!)

However, after it"s all been said and done, HTI went from having two seats on the Board of the Exchange to having none.

The obstinacy of Gheorghiu in keeping his seat on the board might foil the plans of Ţepeş to get his seat on the Board back, because his former employee might get a job with another brokerage firm, meaning he would retain his "representativeness".

One of his options would be to go to one of the brokerages that are opposed to the "gang" that currently has the majority in the BSE.

Imagine if he went and got hired by Mircea Botta, Siminel Andrei, or by Dan Paul?!

Wouldn"t that balance out the forces on the BSE?

I once again state that I do not claim at all that this article is the truth; this text is just a logical inference derived from the known facts.

I wish from the bottom of my heart that the article were mistaken, and the resignation of Ţepeş does not qualify as an offense, as I in fact believe it does.