The chairman and main shareholder of the Rompetrol Group was yesterday charged by prosecutors from the General Prosecutor's Office with having broken the law during the privatisation of the Petromidia Refinery.
Patriciu says the charges brought against him are ungrounded and biased.
According to the General Prosecutor's Office, the investigations produced data and indications as to how Rompetrol Group, the majority shareholder in Rompetrol Rafinare, had not kept to its contractual obligations to make technological investments of 15 million dollars (11.5 million euros), made from the buyer's own resources or resources raised by the buyer in its name.
Patriciu, who is a powerful businessman and a National Liberal Party (PNL) member, is also accused of wrongdoings with respect to loans between refineries and failing to register a number of financial operations in the accounting records.
Patriciu dismissed the accusations. "The investigations are welcome because they allow the management team from Rompetrol to prove its innocence and once and for all put an end to the speculation about the privatisation and the activity of the Petromidia refinery. We hope the investigation will be over as soon as possible and we are certain it will end positively. I would like to say that in our talks today the prosecutors expressly informed me and the Rompetrol managers called for questioning at the General Prosecutor's Office today (yesterday) that no steps have been taken under the penal code in terms of our being forbidden to leave Romania, and there have been no other administrative actions in this respect," he said. Patriciu arrived yesterday morning at the General Prosecutor's Office with Alexandru Nicolcioiu, the chairman of Rompetrol Rafinare board of directors, Florin Eric Chis, the former chief executive of Petromidia, current Rompetrol Group vice-chairman and chief executive of Rompetrol Petrochemicals, and Constantin Adrian Volintiru, Rompetrol Rafinare's chief financial officer, for questioning about the privatisation of the Petromidia Refinery. They have been under prosecution since January.
After leaving the General Prosecutor's Office Patriciu said that the prosecutors would soon present evidence and have the necessary expertisation conducted. "We hope the expertisation will be done by an international audit company because this case requires a great deal of knowledge," he stated.
As for the first of the charges brought against him - the failure to meet investment commitments in the first year since privatisation of the refinery - Patriciu said that had that been real, the refinery could not have turned from a loss-making producer into a profitable company in 2003 and 2004.
Addressing the issue of the loans between refineries, he explained that they are "customary practice" and that all exchanges involving 22,000 tonnes of petroleum were recorded in exchange reports, without buy-sell deeds being necessary. He added that since the products were under the care of Oil Terminal they were destined for export.
vlad.nicolaescu@zf.ro
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
