Prosecutorsâ investigation of the top leadership of Rompetrol Group NV (RCC.RO), the second largest oil group operating in Romania, performed a lot in the public eye, during the past ten months.
In May last year Dinu Patriciu, Rompetrol president, was briefly detained and since then media attention did not go away. The frequent visits Patriciu made to the prosecutorsâ office to answer their questions being as many occasions for him to claim his innocence, as for the prosecutors to keep quiet about the details of the case they were building. We all found out the indictment targeted a cross-border organized crime group which siphoned out of Romania money obtained by tax evasion, fraud, and inside trading on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The prosecutors added to Patriciuâs name on their list, those of other members of the Rompetrol management team, and of officials with the state authority vetting companies to operate on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
The prosecutors constantly asked to keep the people charged in custody, during the investigation, while the latter fought back both in court and in the media. Rompetrol asked the prosecutors Friday in a public letter to publicly apologize for their actions and take back all statements they made. A day before Rompetrol had sued the Romanian counter-intelligence service for one million dollars in moral damages because the phone calls of the Rompetrol managers were tapped under no court order, the oil company alleged.
The court decided Thursday to postpone till March 3 its ruling on the renewed prosecutorsâ request to arrest Patriciu. And prosecutors responded asking the court to reconsider and move that ruling at an earlier date.
They also presented the media details of their indictment report, which runs on 49pages to document why they believe it was important for the people charged to stay in
