Introduction

In 2001, Romania embarked upon what was then a half-hearted effort to provide restitution to the victims of the wrongful and abusive confiscations of their homes and properties by the Communist authorities after 1945. This effort included provisions to offer restitution to the owners of pre-communist era properties where those properties could no longer be returned in-kind under restitution Law Nr. 10/2001, as modified under Law 247/2005. Government Decision Nr. 1481/2005 was enacted to set up the Property Fund (the “PF”), to provide compensation to such former owners through grants of shares in the PF in proportion to the value of their successful claims.

The PF was organized as a hybrid "closed-end" mutual fund which issues shares in settlement of restitution claims. Upon receiving the shares, the recipient becomes a shareholder in one of Europe's largest funds. The Fund currently has a portfolio of shares in some of Romania’s best-known and most valued institutions, with the total assets currently held by it estimated at about €3.9 billion ($6 billion). However, the full implementation of the Fund cannot occur until the Fund is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange and that listing has been inordinately delayed to the determent of the mostly elderly claimants who still await justice.

Cognizant of this problem, the Romanian government passed an ordinance last June that contains a series of measures that permit the speedy listing of the Fund with the Bucharest Stock Exchange, and created the basis for a temporary and official market for the sale of the Fund's shares until such time as the Fund is listed on the Exchange. Although it took another six months for any real progress to occur, since December 2007 an apparently genuine and purposeful effort has been made by the Fund’s Supervisory Board to bring about the listing of