Marcel Darie, who is accused of leaving 200 families without apartments, says he is innocent and he never managed a company building attic-like apartments. The accusations against him were made by the victims in a news conference on May 19, IPN reports.
In a comment posted on IPN’s website after the conference, Marcel Darie says that since 2007 he has been involved in public activities. Now he heads the NGO “Pro-Chisinau”. As to the attic-like apartments, Marcel Darie stated that the NGO only undertook to defend the interests of the dwellers of the blocks by negotiating insulation, pipe replacement and common areas laying out works with the construction companies and dealt with other problems faces by dwellers during the construction of attic-like apartments.
The man also said that in 2012 his brother Dorin Darie, who ran a construction business, decided to invest money in a series of dorm-like buildings that were in a bad state. During two years, he erected a number of attic-like apartment stories and Marcel Darie coordinated all the investments and the works performed for the association of dwellers.
Marcel Darie said that after he took part in the election campaign of 2011, within which he harshly criticized mayor Dorin Chirtoaca, his brother was unable to get authorizations for building attic-like apartments in Chisinau municipality as they are issued exclusively by the City Hall. He thus sold his business to an investor that committed itself by a contact to finish the constructions that were 90% ready, namely the attic-like apartment stories at 96 Ialoveni, 22/2 Sucevita, 22/1 Sucevita, 3 Coca, and 18/3 Voluntarilor.
According to Marcel Darie, a criminal case was later started against the director of the building company Aliona Gasanov over swindle as an audit showed that the firm appropriated millions of lei.
Marcel Darie also said that as chairman of “Pro-Chisinau”, he organized meetings between apartment buyers and representatives of the state authorities and suggested financial and legal solutions for finishing the attic-like apartments and for helping the victims. From next week, the construction woks on the streets Coca and Pelivan will restart, under the supervision of the NGO. The works are to be finished by autumn. The other attic-like apartment stories will be also finished.
The representatives of the 200 families that invested money in the apartments said the managers of the construction company disappeared with 60 million lei and left them with debts and without dwellings. They thus continue to live in rented accommodation.
