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Bucharest Court can start the trial of the case concerning the Romanian Post impairment by businessman Nelu Iordache and former manager of Blue Air company, Gheorghe Racaru, the Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled on Thursday.
The decision was made after the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) contested the Bucharest Courthouse's decision to withdraw some phone tapping from the case. The Court of Appeal granted the prosecutors' appeal and disposed the maintenance of all evidence to the file.
Cristian Mihai Buciu, former director of the Operational Direction within the Romanian Post National Company, businessman Nelu Iordache and former Blue Air manager, Gheorghe Racaru were indicted by DNA prosecutors in November 2016, the two being charged with the offense of improper participation in abuse of office, if the civil servant has obtained for himself or for a third party undue benefits.
According to a DNA press release sent on Tuesday to agerpres, the three defendants' actions prejudiced the Romanian Post National Company (Posta Romana, CNPR) with over 3.3 million euro.
"On September 8, 2008, the defendant Cristian Mihai Baciu, (...) with the other two defendants' support, manipulated the Romanian Post representatives into signing, in bona fide, a contract with disadvantageous conditions, prejudicial to the national company that was thus bereft of 3,395,286 euro. As a matter of fact, ANRC (subsequently ANCOM, the Romanian regulator in communication) imposed on the Romanian Post National Company internal standards as to the distribution of priority postal items, determined by European regulations. The only solution identified by the Romanian Post for compliance with the maximum distribution intervals was to set up an air platform dedicated to the correspondence transport," reads the press release.
According to the same sources, the Board of Directors of CNPR approved the business plan on setting up the air platform, although they did not calculate the income and expense the project entailed, and Cristian Mihai Buciu was appointed to deal with taking the necessary steps for the project's implementation.
Prosecutors argue that for purchasing an air service, a public acquisition procedure was launched, the contract value being estimated at 45 million euro, in relation to a number of flight hours and the cost they incurred.
"Imposing certain flight routes, unjustified transport capabilities of aircraft, a maximum collateral value for participation in the tender and a high threshold value for the turnover have restricted access to the public acquisition procedure, given that no air operator (on a market already small) did not have its own sufficient aircraft. Consequently, the only company who could formulate an offer was the airline managed by George Racaru and Nelu Iordache, the latter being a close friend of Cristian Mihai Buciu. In order to meet the qualifying conditions, the airline representatives submitted a fake bank guarantee letter," the release mentions.
According to the prosecutors, although the financial bid of the transport airline managed by George Racaru and Nelu Iordache, designated the winning one, included six direct flights with six aircraft, the contract established that for the same money only four flights with four airplanes will be carried out.
The investigation revealed that the contract containing other flights than those in the financial bid accepted in the public acquisition procedure and at inflated prices brought a prejudice to the Romanian Post worth 3,395,286 euros.
Romanian Post was a civil party with the sum of 6,926,713 euro, in the case being ordered the insuring measure to seize the movable and immovable property that belongs to the defendants.
The case was sent for trial to the Bucharest Court, with the proposal to maintain the ordered precautionary measures.
