Minority Mobiasbanca shareholder accuses Board of raider attack

A minority shareholder of Mobiasbanca announced she will sue Moldova at the European Court of Human Rights because the authorities do not get involved in stopping the illegalities committed by the Board of Mobiasbanca − Groupe Société Générale SA. Iulia Deleu, head of the Law and Democracy Foundation, said that as a minority stockholder, she is the victim of the illegalities committed by the members of the bank’s Board and the majority shareholders, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference, Iulia Deleu said that the minority shareholders were deprived of dividends and had to sell their shares at lower prices. “This raider attack resulted in the nonpayment of the tax on the sale-purchase of the controlling interest estimated at about 140 million lei. The shareholders have not been paid dividends totaling approximately 400 million lei over 10 years. The bank was suspiciously exempted from paying income tax from 1999 until 2008, when there was introduced the zero income tax,” she stated. Iulia Deleu also said that in 1996 she signed a contact for taking part in the statutory fund of Mobiasbanca, in which she invested a large sum of money. After 2000, the Board and the majority stockholders, at the general assemblies of shareholders, proposed not distributing the dividends. They explained that the bank signed agreements with the State Main Tax Inspectorate and can benefit from tax concessions if the dividends are not distributed. According to the Foundation’s head, in 2007 a U.S. company that is a majority shareholder performed a large-scale transaction with the French bank Société Générale in the absence of the decision of the general assembly of shareholders. Iulia Deleu said that this way the legislation was seriously violated, especially the norm saying the general assembly is the executive body that takes decisions about the conclusion of large transactions, involving more than 50% of the ordinary shares. The sold holding represented 70% of the shares. Iulia Deleu said she sought help from the National Financial Market Commission, the National Bank, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Anticorruption Center, but did not receive an answer. “The banking sector witnesses wrongdoings and misappropriation. I ask Prime Minister Vlad Filat to become involved and not limit himself only to the cases investigated by the parliamentary commission,” she stated. In this connection, the chairwoman of the NGO “Moldova’s Woman against Corruption” Galina Leohcova said that the shareholder appealed to all the national institutions and has nothing to do but to seek justice at the ECHR. Vitalia Pavlichenko, the leader of the National Liberal Party, said Iulia Deleu is a victim of the illegalities committed by the members of the bank’s Board and the majority shareholders, who continue to break the law by not paying dividends and taxes to the state budget, being supported by state functionaries. “The relevant institutions did not react and openly showed they support those who commit illegalities,” said Vitalia Pavlichenko. Andrei Luchian, chairman of the NGO “Adjuda Cives”, said the authorities should examine this case alongside the other cases of raider attack on four Moldovan banks.