Antonio Romero Macarro, a businessman from Spain who has worked in Moldova for 25 years, said that even if he invested money, paid taxes to the state and created jobs, he now risks remaining without his business owing to an interest group that influences the hearings so that he could not win the case. Other foreign investors also face such situations. Antonio Romero Macarro called on the responsible institutions to ensure a fair trial.
In a news conference at IPN, Antonio Romero Macarro said he came to Moldova in 1996 in the framework of a project to build a glass factory according to European standards. When the factory was put into operation, problems started to appear and the company was ultimately excluded from the project, remaining with a debt of US$1 million. To solve the dispute, he went to court and the ordinary court and the Appeals Court decided in his favor. But the judgment of the Supreme Court of Justice was influenced by an interested person through the agency of acquaintances and relatives.
Later, Antonio Romero Macarro decided to start a hotel business. He also opened a Spanish restaurant in a space that belonged to a Frenchman. It later turned out that the owner of the space had a debt and he thus remained without his restaurant. He suspects that the same influential person is involved in this case. Currently, he is encountering problems with the apartments where he opened a small hotel. That person intends to misappropriate these apartments too. The problem is this never acts directly, but finds ways for someone else to do it instead of him. He is concerned that the situation of 1997 can repeat. The ordinary court and the Appeals Court ruled in his favor, but he is afraid the Supreme Court of Justice can decide not in his favor.
Lawyer Alina Ursu said that when a foreign investor wants to develop a business in Moldova, the state places obstacles in their way. In this case, it goes to a management contract that was purportedly signed in 2006. By this contract, another citizen of Spain, a former business partner, empowered Antonio Romero Macarro to buy real estate in Moldova. It was an agreement between the two partners as Antonio Romero Macarro wanted to keep this transaction secret from his wife, who was then in Spain, and his partner agreed to register that property in his name. There are relevant documents and the statements of his wife who admitted that she learned about the bought property later, when the relations between the two improved. “Mister Antonio’s wife regrets that Manuel Gonzalez Cofreces tried to profit and to obtain ownership of that property by dishonest ways,” stated the lawyer.
“I reiterate that Antonio Romero Macarro bought the real estate for himself. He paid it with his own money, but for personal reasons wanted to a hide this transaction and to register the property in the name of his friend,” explained Alina Ursu. She also said that the sale and purchase agreement where Manuel Gonzalez Cofrece is indicated as the owner is null and void if the intention wasn’t for this to produce legal effects. These arguments were supported by the ordinary court and the Appeals Court that in 2019 passed a decision in favor of her client.
