WikiLeaks: Boeing was afraid as early as 2008, that EADS would try to bribe Romanian officials

According to a document obtained by Wikileaks, published by El Pais in its online edition, American company Boeing was worried since 2008, that EADS was trying to bribe officials of the government in Bucharest in order to convince them to buy Airbus aircraft for TAROM.

In a diplomatic cable dated July 31st, 2008, sent by the American Embassy of Bucharest, ambassador Nicholas Taubman reports a discussion with Boeing"s regional sales representative, Monte Frazier, which had told him about the intention of the American company to secure a contract for the sale of ten Boeing 737 aircraft to TAROM, which could have amounted to as much as 1 billion dollars.

"Nevertheless, Boeing is concerned about the information that EADS does not to compete fairly and that it might try to unfairly influence key government officials into favoring Airbus", the diplomatic note quoted by Mediafax states.

In a meeting which took place on July 25th, Frazier had presented an accusation according to which EADS may have offered as much as 3% of the final price if the contract were concluded, as a graft to officials of the Romanian government. According to the diplomatic note, Frazier had good relationships with the management of TAROM and felt that they were inclined to buy Boeing 737 aircraft. "Still, those same TAROM managers chose to wait until they could meet in private with Boeing managers outside Romania, at the Farnborough Air Show, to discuss their accusations that several officials from the Ministry of Transport and from the office of the Prime Minister had been offered bribes in order to force TAROM to buy new aircraft from the EADS", the American diplomatic note states.

The diplomatic note discusses how TAROM would benefit financially from buying Boeing aircraft, adding that the embassy of Bucharest offered Boeing it support, as it agreed to back the point of view of Boeing with the Romanian government, "when it were to became appropriate". "Even ignoring the accusations of bribery, Romania is experiencing considerable political pressure to buy European political pressure", the American document states.

"The embassy intends to provide assistance to Boeing to ensure that an eventual competition is fair and transparent. The fact that TAROM is (a company) fully owned by the state means that politics interfere into a decision that should be guided strictly by economic factors", the former American ambassador in Bucharest concluded.