The leadership of Parliament and the Government handled the 2013 situation at Banca de Economii with “blatant cynicism”, stated Alexandru Slusari, chairman of the current inquiry commission investigating the $1B bank fraud.
During a press briefing, Alexandru Slusari said that today the commission heard Oleg Reidman, the lawmaker who himself chaired a parliamentary inquiry into the BEM situation in 2013. “The puzzle is complete and we know about how the government was stripped of the BEM control stock. It was a display of blatant cynicism in both the Parliament and the Government,” Alexandru Slusari said.
He said that the overall financial-banking situation was not the focus of the 2013 inquiry and the final report only spoke about the poor management of BEM and the non-performing loans. “Unfortunately, they didn’t look into the situation of shareholders in 2011 and 2012, the corporate raids, the takeovers by Platon and then Shor,” said Slusari.
Also today, the bank fraud inquiry commission heard Viorel Bîrcă, who held various leading positions within BEM. Alexandru Slusari said that, according to Viorel Bîrcă, decisions on issuing loans at BEM were being taken by BEM President Ilan Shor, Ivan Ursu, then security adviser, and jurist Stanislav Budza. “These three people embezzled Banca de Economii in a matter of days,” Alexandru Slusari said.
The next hearings will be on July 23, when former bank Governor Dorin Draguțanu, Ema Tăbârţă, former deputy governor of the NBM, as well as PDM deputies Sergiu Sîrbu and Vladimir Vitiuc are expected to before the inquiry commission.