Seven persons were escorted to the National Anticorruption Center to be questioned within the criminal cases concerning the release of bad loans on May 22. Four of these were arrested for 72 hours. The decision regarding another suspect will be taken when the questioning is over, IPN reports.

The head of the Center’s Prosecution Division Bogdan Zumbreanu told a news conference that those arrested include the former chief of Banca de Economii (BEM), the former head of the bank’s Law Division, the director of SRL Valiexchimp and the director of SRL Mosbani. The ex-vice president of the BEM and the former head of the bank’s Economic Security Division were escorted to the Center, but were allowed to leave after they were questioned. A businessman who took out loans from BEM is being questioned and a decision whether to arrest him or not is yet to be taken.

The persons escorted to the National Anticorruption Center are suspected of violating the lending rules, swindle and obtaining of loans by fraud. “There are 16 criminal cases concerning the provision of loans by violating the rules and the obtaining of loans by fraud pending in court,” stated Bogdan Zumbreanu.

Anticorruption office Adriana Betisor said that a number of searches were carried out at Banca Sociala and BEM on May 22. “A part of the searches go on and the results will be made public when a final conclusion is formulated,” she stated.

The prosecutor also said that the court decided to release businessman Ilan Shor, former chairman of the Administration Board of BEM, from house arrest and to place him under judiciary control. Another ex-chairman of the Administration Board of BEM, Viorel Barca, was transferred from the remand unit under house arrest.