Organized Crime and Coruption Project

There are 17 duty-free shops at the Serbian border with Romania. In Timis County, there are eight at the Stamora Moravita checkpoint and one at Jimbolia checkpoint. In Caras-Severin County, there is one at the Naidas checkpoint and three in the Moldova Veche harbor. In Mehedinti County, there are four at the Portile de Fier 1 checkpoint. In July 2007, all these shops together sold 5.2 million packs of cigarettes, and in August 4.7 million.

The shops are owned by nine companies: GFS and Euroavipo own three shops each; Heinrig, A.V.A. Tour, EuroTrade Invest, Transeuro Import Export own two each; and Andradi Com, Marco Impex – 8000 and DGV – Distribution General value own one each.

GFS

GFS Investment Romania was founded in 2006, according to the Romanian National Companies Register. However, the company did business before that under the name GFS Duty-Free Romania. Now it is owned by C.F.S. Trading (Overseas) Limited, an off-shore company based in Limassol, Cyprus. The company has 20 outlets on the frontier in free zones across Romania and addresses in Constanta, Dolj, Bihor, Caras-Severin, Timis, Arad, Mehedinti, Vaslui and Iasi counties, and in Bucharest.

GFS benefited from the protection of Nini Sapunaru in 1999. Nini Sapunaru is a member in the National Liberal Party Central Politic Bureau and former head of customs. GFS was founded by Razvan Petrovici, who is the godson of Virgil Magureanu, former head of the Romanian Intelligence Service. Today, records show that the company is being administrated by Petru Chirodea and Radu Lobda. Chirodea said he was once an administrator of a subsidiary of the former company GFS Duty-Free Romania, and said he has nothing to do with this company anymore.

Euroavipo & Euro Trade Invest

The major owners of these companies are the brothers Serban and Emanuel Dobronauteanu, Catalin Bucura and George Ivanescu. These people also own companies dealing with alcoholic beverages and mineral water and have been involved in several financial scandals. Serban Dobronauteanu is the president of both the Romanian Chess Federation and Balkan Chess Federation. George Ivanescu is a business partner of the Social Democratic Party Senator Ion Vasile.

Heinrig Impex & Andradi Com

Andradi Com has its office in a block of flats in Timisoara and it is owned by the Spanish company Tabacmesa. According to the Oct. 21, 2007 edition of Business Week, Tabacmesa has duty-free shops and warehouses in Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belgium and Romania. The company was founded in 1987 in Madrid. In July 2007, it became a subsidiary of Uniprex, a company which also owns TV and radio stations, and is in the tourism business.

Both companies are connected to Catalin Lascut, the son of Pavel Lascut, former chief deputy of the National Customs Authority Surveillance and Control Department. Lascut was also connected to Santo International, a company that owned a shop in the Moldova Veche harbor during the Omer Radovancovici smuggling network activities. AISPA Ltd., an off-shore company in Cyprus which owns Santo International, is a shareholder of Babel Industries, another company owned by Catalin Lascut. Moreover, Catalin Lascut sold his 25 percent shares from Millenium Pro Design to Heinrig Impex.

Heinrig Impex is based in the Cosntanta free zone. The major shareholders are Henry Rismont, a German citizen, and Gebr. Heinemann SC S Company. Henry Rismont can also be found at the Midocar Company, an auto dealer of VW.  The auto dealer has huge contracts worth millions of dollars with the Romanian Intelligence services, the Army, and other agencies.

Transeuro

Lucian Orban and Virgil Visenescu are owners of this company which in turn owns other companies involved in diverse enterprises including cinema. Orban owns the SDV Company with Teodor Cristodor, who was involved in the Omer Radovancovici network. Orban also owns the Turnuri Company with the father of Iulian Teseleanu, chief of the Customs Bureau in Constanta Sud – Agigea Black Sea harbor.

Visenescu said he couldn’t comment specifically about Transeuro affairs because he was only a shareholder at one of the companies that operates duty-free shops and never had an executive job. But he did want to talk about smuggling.

“I can tell you that this word, smuggling, must be proven and demonstrated by the authorities,” Visenescu said. “If there were any illicit activity, the greatest punishment would have been the closing of the companies’ activities. Why haven’t these companies been closed? This means that this trafficking and smuggling were not proven.” Visenescu said that although some duty-free shop employees had been arrested on smuggling-related charges, they were eventually released.

DGV – Distribution General Value

Andrei Panaitescu, a company shareholder, is the former son in law of Iasi County Chief Prosecutor Dan Badarau. Panaitescu was in 2002 a shareholder of Agrostar 2000 together the Social Democratic Party deputy Adrian Ionel and a business partner of Dorin Cocos. Cocos  was closely connected to former Romanian Premier Adrian Nastase.

Niculae Chiritescu, another shareholder, said that because the phones were tapped, it was better to meet him at his office. He never appeared. However, he said on the phone that it is normal for authorities to blame the duty free shops for smuggling. But even during the time the shops were closed, authorities were not able to stop smuggling, he said.

Marcoimpex – 8000

According to the National Companies Registrar, major shareholders are Ionel Dumitrescu and Hami Holding, a Swiss company. Hami Holding AG moved its headquarters in April 2007 from Fribourg canton to Ennetbürgen. It is managed by Michael Hänggi.

A.V.A. Tour

The company is owned by the Voicu family from Arad, close to the Hungarian border.