Hallucinatory transcripts from a file of the DIICOT prosecutors show the mockery of public money during the period when, at the highest level, there was talk of budget economy. A state company, subordinate to the Ministry of Economy, whose role was to control boilers and pressure vessels, had become the personal piggy bank of the management, claim the investigators, who installed wiretapping devices in the offices, intercepted telephones and filed astonishing transcripts – mobile tens of thousands of euros in embezzled money, thousands of books bought in an institution with less than 100 employees and money carried in bags. Even employees who were not involved in the scheme were amazed at how the money was literally being thrown out the window.
“Employee: Yes. My boss called me twice last week…
Employee: For better or for worse?
Employee: I looted everything. We are at zero!
(…)
Employee: Aaah! Her home furniture? I was thinking that they forbid us to buy furniture here.
Employee: Give me in … ! What do I have to do with them!
Employee: 70,000 euros for the furniture? Wow!”
Money from the budget, steal with the sack
“On 03.05.2023, time 09:59:45 named ….(head of service, no) arrives at the office with a black bag in his hand which he puts on the desk. (…) he goes to the door of the office to lock it leaving the keys in the doorknob. (…) From the bag, he first takes out a stack of money, then he takes out a black gift bag in which there are several sums of money that he takes and puts them on the desk. Also in the black bag is a smaller red and white gift bag from which he pulls out other wads of money.”
Amounts difficult to explain in the accounts
“Director: But, honestly, I don’t know how much I deposited and I don’t know anymore.
Bank employee: Somewhere around a hundred or so thousand..
Director: And what do you need? What supporting documents do you need for this?
Bank employee: Well, I don’t know! What documents do you have? Contracts, I have no idea! I do not know! what do you have
Manager: My money is from… what documents should I send you? My savings, I got a Christmas present.. what do you want me to tell you?”
Waste on unnecessary purchases
“Employee: About 300 bibliographies. What the hell do I do with 300 bibliographies? I take them. Are there more or did they all come to me?
Employee: No! There are thousands.
Employee: OK! Well, but stretch… Stretch, 200 sets? 200 sets?
Employee: 5,000 pieces! I mean, it’s unreal. Uh…the amount.”
source: DIICOT file
What are the allegations in the case
DIICOT prosecutors and police officers from the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime carried out 39 searches on Wednesday in a file in which investigations are being carried out under the aspect of committing the crimes of forming an organized criminal group, embezzlement with particularly serious consequences and money laundering.
According to DIICOT, several employees from the National Company for the Control of Boilers, Lifting Installations and Pressure Vessels (a state company under the Ministry of Energy) made almost 500 fictitious public purchases in the last three years, damaging the company’s budget by about two millions of euros.
“The criminal mechanism involved making fictitious purchases of goods from companies controlled by the members of the criminal group/persons who joined the criminal group/persons close to the members of the criminal group, through direct attribution in the SEAP platform.
The goods/products were not actually delivered, but the consideration for these purchases was paid by the company, the sums of money being withdrawn in cash from the ATM or from the counters of the banking units and subsequently distributed among the members of the organized criminal group.
Later, in order to reduce the stock of goods thus purchased from the company’s management, they were released for consumption to the departments/services within the CNCIR – the central structure or to the subordinate units – Regional Branches and Territorial Work Points”, reads the quoted statement.
According to the prosecutors, the group acted from May 2020 until now, managing to embezzle the institution’s budget with the total amount of 9,699,480.08 lei (approximately two million euros), coming from 485 (fictitious) public purchases of goods (from the categories: stationery and office equipment, cleaning and hygiene, building materials, electrical accessories and other consumables).
Editor : G.M.
