Investigation exposes Romanian state losing tens of millions of lei through transfer of companies to Albanian citizens

The investigation of the journalist Cosmin Savu exposed a new movement through which the Romanian state ends up losing tens of millions of lei. The tactic involves the transfer of companies that are starting to lose money in Romania to Albanian citizens, with the result that they will gradually disappear.

Albania is known both for the presence of local underworld, human trafficking and tax evasion.

This is how Romanian companies that have been transferred ended up there to cause damage of millions of euros to the Romanian state because they did not pay their taxes and fees, laundered money from crimes or deceived leasing companies or banks.

The “Romania, I love you” team identified 27 Albanian citizens from the same area, shareholders in Romanian companies. 60 km from Tirana, the capital of Albania, in Lehze, the journalists found a city of “businessmen” with connections in more than 60 companies in Romania. Some of them are involved in 9-15 Romanian companies.

Looking for patrons around the city and in a neighboring village, they found a shareholder in nine companies in Romania, with a commercial profile or gambling and betting. Together with another friend, the two became shareholders in companies with debts to other companies or involved in tax crime cases of several million lei. Visibly distraught, the men denied the connection, saying they had never left the country.

One of the main pioneers of these movements seems to be Iulian Dumitrescu, the president of the Prahova County Council from the PNL, who started his political career in Calarasi. Beyond their own shares in companies that were sold to the Albanians, the journalists also discovered the implications of Dumitrescu’s family members and close associates in such entanglements, along with the fact that the president of the CJ propelled various acquaintances in key positions – both in CJ Prahova, as well as at ANAF.

One of the companies in which Iulian Dumitrescu was involved is Carson Construction SRL – today, with debts of 3.5 million lei, a large part to public finances. The company goes through numerous changes of name and shareholders, Dumitrescu transferring the shares to his sister, Angelica Lambrea.

In the end, the shares end up with a construction worker in Albania, who paid almost 18 million lei.

The police and the Prosecutor’s Office in Romania did not advance

Many of the damaging companies have close relatives, family members or associates of Dumitrescu in common. They change names, addresses and owners in order to lose track of the beneficiaries, the transactions being carried out successively between 2012 and 2017.

It has been almost four years since the police knew about this case and three years since the “Romania, te iubesc” journalists showed Dumitrescu’s connections for the first time, but a legal clarification has not yet been reached.

After arriving in Prahova, Dumitrescu brought close to him those who were with him at the beginning, in Călărași:

• Marian Iorga was head of the Prahova Police Inspectorate. In 2020, he was seconded as a commander at the Prahova Police and was tried for bribery. In the meantime he retired, and is currently logistics director at Hidro Prahova, the regional operator of public water supply services in Prahova;
• Gigi Giurcan, son of Dumitrescu and former head of the General Directorate of Information and Internal Protection Călărași. He retired and was a counselor at Conpetafter he had been proposed secretary at the MAI;
• Răducu Filipescu, former president of Călărași, protector of Dumitrescu; currently advises him in Prahova;
• Anna Maria Vasile, public administrator of CJ Prahova, brought from Bucharest, where she collaborated with Robert Negoiță, mayor of sector 3, the companies in the close group having substantial contracts in the sector;
• George Cătălin Șerban, former head of the Călăraşi Court, became state secretary at the Ministry of Justice, also led by a close associate of Dumitrescu.

Asked by the journalist Cosmin Savu about his connections with these transfers, transfers and the promotion of those close to him in key positions, Dumitrescu denied the accusations and connections, but refused to give an explanatory answer.

I have been a senator since 2012 and since then I have tried to do things in this political life. What I did before 2012, I don’t even want to answer you, please forget. I don’t want to answer you, it’s my job.

Iulian Dumitrescu, PNL:

The full show can be watched on the account of YouTube or on the platform VOYA.

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