On the morning of Thursday,
13 December, a new and sensationally lurid “bank fraud scandal” exploded across
the front pages of the newspapers in Romania, scarcely more than a month after
an earlier “bank fraud scandal” (see earlier
article in this column), with at least 48 searches being conducted in
Bucharest and elsewhere and at least 20 persons being arrested.
According to the Directorate
for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (Direcţiei de Investigare a
Infracţiunilor de Criminalitate Organizată şi Terorism – DIICOT), the elite
police/prosecutorial unit that carried out both the arrests in November and
those of this week, a total of 58 persons are being investigated in connection
with an alleged bank fraud ring involving the over-estimating of property used as
collateral to obtain bank loans, with a total estimated loss of 85 million
euros.
In the November
scandal only one of those arrested was a banker, and he was soon released. In the scandal that hit the press and the
tabloids yesterday details are still sketchy, but at present one banker is
known to have been arrested: Lucian Cojocaru, a vice president of Volksbank and
a former director of BRD, who is being investigated for his work with BRD. According to DIICOT a total of seven bank officials
are under investigation: four from BRD and three from Volksbank. Statements to date indicate that the banks
BRD, Volksbank, and ATE were the main victims of the fraud ring, and of these three
at least BRD and Volksbank are known to have been cooperating with
investigators on the case for some time.
Volksbank has issued a statement saying that it estimates its own loss
in the case to be 8 million euros, and that it has been cooperating with
investigators on the case since May 2010.
(Volksbank România
S.A. is owned 99.9999889% by VBI Beteiligungs GmbH, while BRD (“BRD – Groupe Société
Générale S.A.”) is owned 60.16% by Société Générale S.A., and ATE (“ATE Bank România
S.A.”) is owned 93.27% by Agricultural Bank of Greece S.A.)
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| Marius Locic a fostreţinut pentru 24 de ore |
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| Urmează arestări îndosarul Bancheri II |
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| Percheziţii la Satu Mare înnoul dosar al bancherilor |
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| Fraude bancare de 85 demilioane de euro: Sunt implicaţi şapte directori de bănci |
| FRAUDE BANCARE de 85milioane de euro. 7 directori de bănci, printre care șefi de la BRD șiVolksbank, cercetaţi de DIICOT |
| Frauda bancara: Actualulvicepresedintele Volksbank, audiat pentru activitatea din BRD |
Sources:
Lucian
Cojocaru, vicepresedintele Volksbank si sefi ai sucursalelor BRD Unirii si
Dorobanti, cercetati in noul caz al fraudelor bancare (2012-12-13 13:54 )
Caracatita:
un fost sef BRD, acum la Volksbank, este implicat in cazul fraudelor bancare
(2012-12-13)
Volksbank:
Expunerea băncii pe fraudele anchetate de DIICOT este de 8 milioane de euro. Cazul
este din 2010 (2012-12-13 11:55 )
Mark Pleas
[contact]
