The High Court of Cassation and Justice ordered on Wednesday the acquittal of all the defendants in the bankruptcy case of Astra Asigurări.
The supreme court admitted on Wednesday the appeals of the defendants in this case, being annulled the convictions given in July 2019 by the court of first instance – Bucharest Court of Appeal.
Thus, Angela Toncescu, former chairman of the Council of the Insurance Supervisory Commission (the current Financial Supervisory Authority), was acquitted, who had received a three-year prison sentence with execution for abuse of office.
Also acquitted were Tudor Baltă and Constantin Buzoianu, former vice-presidents of the Council of the Insurance Supervisory Commission, Dan Constantinescu, Daniela Popa, Corneliu-Silviu Moldoveanu, members of the Council. They were sentenced in the first instance to three years and six months suspended imprisonment each.
Three other defendants were acquitted: Anabella Ruse, Director General of the General Authorizations Directorate; Marinela Nemeş, General Manager of the General Legal Directorate, and Carmen-Gabriela Ivan, General Manager of the General Directorate for Financial Stability and Actuarial Affairs, all within the Insurance Supervisory Commission.
The court left unresolved the civil actions filed by Societatea de Asigurare Reasigurare Astra SA and the Insured Guarantee Fund (FGA) and the Financial Supervision Authority in contradiction with the defendant Angela Toncescu.
In the case of the businessman Dan Adamescu, the court ordered, from the very beginning, the cessation of the criminal trial as a result of his death.
In December 2016, DNA sued the businessman Dan Adamescu, president of the Supervisory Board of SC Asigurare Reasigurare Astra SA at the time of the facts, in the case regarding the prejudice of the company with approximately 800 million lei.
DNA claimed that Adamescu mismanaged the company Astra between 2011 and 2013, in order to obtain personal advantages or in favor of the group of affiliated companies.
The maladministration consisted, according to the prosecutors, in the use of illegal practices / methods to cosmeticize the financial situation of the company, measures likely to cover the criminal activity, but which, in the alternative, determined the serious alteration of the internal market functioning mechanisms. insurance.
The criminal activity also took place in the context in which certain persons from the management of the Insurance Supervisory Commission, by violating their duties, took steps to favor Adamescu.
“In the period 2011-2013, Adamescu, in violation of some provisions of the Fiscal Code and the legislation applicable to the insurance and reinsurance market, carried out a series of harmful actions for the company, in the sense that it lacked the necessary liquidity to carry out the insurance activity; also, the distorted reports made prevented the ASF representatives from supervising Astra’s activity, so as to ensure the protection of the insured and to contribute to maintaining the stability of the insurance market.As a result, Astra entered the special administration procedure and later went bankrupt. produced in its patrimony being in the amount of 795,387,999 lei “, it is shown in the communiqué.
Investigators noted that the businessman ordered loans to affiliates, amounting to about 106 million lei, without showing any interest in assessing credit risk and without taking prudential measures to protect Astra’s financial resources.
Prosecutors also claim that he ordered the signing of an assignment contract by which Astra, as assignee, undertook to pay in full the debt of a company to a bank, given that it was in bankruptcy proceedings.
“It should be mentioned that the company was part of the group of companies affiliated to Astra. The respective debt was 1,594,564.89 euros and 10,000 USD, to which was added an annual interest of 6%. In the bankruptcy procedure of the company, Astra received only the amount of 358,768 lei.In another context, between June and July 2011, Adamescu (…) used the amount of 68,322,510 lei to purchase shares, representing 17% of Astra’s share capital. This amount came from the insurance company’s own liquidity, but the defendant hid the source of the money by simulating loan agreements granted to another company controlled by him (Medien Holding) “, said DNA.
DNA mentioned that, on June 21, 2011, at Adamescu’s request, the management of the Insurance Supervisory Commission approved the intention of Epsilon Estate Provider SRL to acquire a package of Astra SA shares, although it did not meet the financial conditions to become a significant shareholder in an insurance company.
Prosecutors found that the purchase of the package of shares was approved by defendants Toncescu, Baltă and Buzoianu, Constantinescu, Popa and Moldoveanu, Ruse, Nemeş and Ivan, although they knew that the company did not meet the conditions.
“As the reinsurance company Astra SA was deprived of some of the liquidity necessary to carry out the insurance-reinsurance activity, Adamescu and another person fictitiously transferred the reinsurance risks to Panamerican Re (a company established and registered in a tax haven for this purpose) and, as a consequence, distorted the reporting of position, financial performance and prudential indicators (solvency margin and liquidity ratio) .Thus the appearance of compliance with the prudential rules in force was created, which allowed the continued underwriting of policies whose risk was not covered, neither from own resources, nor through adequate reinsurance programs “, the quoted source specified.
DNA mentioned that Adamescu and the other person obtained an undue benefit, consisting in taking over the package of shares by a shareholder (which they controlled) with a financial situation that did not allow him to honor his patrimonial obligations nor to ensure the premises for supporting the activity. Astra from its own sources, if its financial situation deteriorates, which was later reflected in the company’s financial difficulties.
“Dan Adamescu, on August 14, 2008, requested and obtained from CSA (current ASF), the calculation of the available solvency margin, as hidden net reserves from the valuation of assets held with another insurance company, of the amount of 118,342. 090.30 lei, in order to artificially improve the prudential indicators. In its absence, the real capitalization of the Astra company would have been imposed in order not to reach its insolvency “, it is also shown in the communiqué.
In this regard, the investigators noted, Angela Toncescu issued an address by which she accepted the request made by the Astra representatives.
– .
