ZF English

From the album, to oil deals and Iliescu posters

26.05.2000, 00:00 31



The "French affair" broke out when Le Parisien ran an article titled "French judge investigates in Bucharest." According to the article, judge Henri Pons had left for Bucharest to inquire into a money laundering case that allegedly involved a number of Romanian political personalities who had connections with Romanian-born French businessman Adrian Costea.

French authorities on a visit to Bucharest have confirmed they wanted to hear Adrian Nastase, Teodor Melescanu, Viorel Hrebenciuc, Mihai Unghianu, Nicolae Dan Fruntelata, Razvan Temesan, Mircea Cosea, Iosif Boda, Ovidiu Grasu and Dumitru Iliescu as witnesses. They wanted more details on the editing, by one of Costea's firms, of the album "Eternal and fascinating Romania," and on dealings with fuel. French interest for Costea's affairs in Romania was sparked by an anonymous tip sent to TRAFCIN, a French government body that collects and processes information on clandestine financial circuits.

The people subpoenaed to testify in the Costea case said the matter was a mere diversion the power is using to drag the PDSR into a money laundering scandal. As a retort, the PDSR promised an ample critical campaign against the power.

The French investigation into Costea himself, who left Romania in 1973 and settled in Paris, began in 1998, after TRAFCIN received the tip, apparently from Bucharest. On May 5, the Bucharest General Prosecutor's Office publishes an indictment by French authorities, according to which loans to Costea's firms came from funds embezzled in Romania from Bancorex.

On the other hand, Costea's companies had paid for expenses not related to their profile, including boarding in France for a number of Romanian politicians (Nastase, Teodor Melescanu, Mircea Cosea), hospital bills for Iosif Boda, contributions to foundations in Romania, and payments to the account of a protection and security company, GIPP, founded in Bucharest by Dumitru Iliescu, head of the Protection and Guard Service during the Ion Iliescu presidency.

French authorities have acknowledged that a total of $58 million have transited through Costea's bank accounts - allegedly the same money that went missing from Bancorex.

Romanian authorities had as early as 1997 begun investigations into the album affair and the fuel transactions funded by Bancorex. Even before the French would begin their inquiries, the Romanians had already found that Adrian Costea was involved in the "Agroholding" Constanta and "Albumul" cases, along with former Bancorex president Razvan Temesan, PDSR deputy Viorel Hrebenciuc (former secretary general of the Government), the late Dan Cristian Popovici (former president of the Lower Chamber Commission for Agriculture), Stan Dragomir (former state secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture), Mihail Cojocaru (former Agroholding director), Mihai Unghianu (former deputy secretary general of the Government) and Nicolae Dan Fruntelata (former head of the Government's Information Department). According to the Romanian authorities, Bancorex lost $6 million in the "Agroholding" case and $5 million with the album "Eternal and fascinating Romania."

Romanian media revealed that Adrian Costea was a confidante to former President Ion Iliescu. He had a Romanian diplomatic passport since 1993, and President Constantinescu confirmed him in 2000, as "ambassador at large." President Constantinescu's spokesman Rasvan Popescu said the only connection between the Presidency and Adrian Costea was "the extension of the middleman mandate," awarded by former President Ion Iliescu and former Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu, in order to continue the distribution of the album "Eternal and fascinating Romania" in international circles.

PDSR president Ion Iliescu has said Adrian Costea never had an official statute within the presidential institution and their relation has been one of "personal consulting." Iliescu added that he never had commercial relations with Costea, no fuel dealings, and that the Romanian-French businessman was not on his campaign staff or on PDSR's. After 1996, added Iliescu, he had no other connection to Adrian Costea.

As to the diplomatic passports Adrian Costea and his wife had, Ion Iliescu and Teodor Melescanu have cast the blame on each other. An investigation begun by Foreign Minister Petre Roman has highlighted the lack of precise records on diplomatic passports in circulation.

The scandal took a new turn when the media found that part of Ion Iliescu's electoral posters in 1996 were printed by Adrian Costea's company, Groupe Saintonge Edition (GSE), and entered the country through the Bors customs point. The posters were carried by ten rigs and were stored in the house of Gheorghe Pascu, economic director at the Cotroceni Palace, today the PDSR treasurer.

On May 12, Nini Sapunaru, head of the General Customs Department (DGV) said there were no documents proving customs duties had been paid for the posters, and the beneficiaries were the ones who broke the law. On May 16, the Prosecutor's Office began investigations at the Bors customs and found that documents referring to the 1996 electoral posters were missing. That investigation continues.

After the poster scandal broke out, Ion Iliescu said on May 15 that Adrian Costea had "expressed the wish" to contribute to the election campaign with printed matters, for which purpose he dispatched a photographer to Bucharest. According to Iliescu, the technical details and logistics were handled by Iosif Boda, his former campaign director, today one of the PDSR leaders.

Iosif Boda, for his part, said he knew nothing of the poster shipments. According to what he cropped from the press, he gathered the first shipments entered the country in May 1996, when he was ambassador to Berna. Boda's activity in the Iliescu electoral staff began only in August 1996. Boda, today the ApR vice-president, said Iliescu makes use of "bad advice" when he is throwing the guilt on his former campaign chief.

Gheorghe Pascu, the man to whom the posters were shipped, said Costea had all the documents pertaining to the posters. Costea had to consult in these matters with Boda and Iliescu, Pascu added. According to him, the posters were shipped to his house because there was plenty of room for storage.

In an interview to Pro TV, Adrian Costea said he printed the posters with his company's money, but the PDSR was supposed to pay for them. It never happened, because "the PDSR lost the elections." Costea said he had tried to recover his money, the last time in 1999, when he approached Ion Iliescu in the PDSR building, but unsuccessfully. He has constantly eschewed suing the PDSR because he did not want a conflict with the people he had helped. However, he did not rule out a lawsuit in the future. In fact, added Costea, French authorities became suspicious namely because he made no attempt during all these years to recover his money from Romania. The money is taxable under French law.

On May 18, PDSR first deputy president Adrian Nastase said two different campaigns were held in 1996, one for the party and one for Ion Iliescu and that in the PDSR there is no one left to know the exact details of the presidential campaign, except for Gheorghe Pascu, "who I'm not sure can still be trusted." The present PDSR vice-president, Ioan Mircea Pascu, former spokesman for the presidential campaign, distanced himself from financial aspects, referring to Iosif Boda as the only expert.

On May 22, after a visit to Germany, PDSR leader Ion Iliescu said the posters printed in France had been personal sponsorships, which Costea, as a Romanian citizen, assumed entirely on his own responsibility. "I was a public person. I was the head of the state," Ion Iliescu said.

According to documents mentioned in the media, some of the electoral posters used by Ion Iliescu in 1996 were printed by GSE, registered in France by Adrian Costea, but represented by Monique Holtman, a French citizen. On the other hand, Romanian law bans election sponsorship from foreign sources.

French judge Henri Pons left Romania on May 22; the investigation will be continued by Romanian prosecutors. A French liaison officer remains in Bucharest, who is allowed to be present at investigations carried out by Romanian officials. According to Romanian press reports, the investigation will focus on oil products, with ramifications into the port of Constanta and the Yugoslavian border. In parallel, Romanian prosecutors continue their investigation on the entry of trucks loaded with Iliescu posters through the customs in 1996.

Along with the judicial investigation, a genuine political scandal broke out in Bucharest. PNL first vice-president Valeriu Stoica demanded Ion Iliescu to back off from the presidential race in 2000. The PN?CD will demand the Constitutional Court to invalidate Ion Iliescu's candidacy for a new mandate, and promised to present more elements to back its claim than it did in 1996. PNL senators have begun collecting signatures for a commission investigating the involvement of political personalities in the Costea scandal. The PDSR reconfirmed Ion Iliescu as the party's candidate for the presidential elections. The PDSR leader said the scandal is part of a design to stop his candidacy and warned that everything would turn against the conspirators. The scandal is far from people's preoccupations, Iliescu added.

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