Lasselsberger Romania, fully-owned subsidiary of Austrian-based manufacturer of ceramic wall and floor surfaces, is under criminal probe, according to data extracted from the Trade Registry.

“Delta (e.n. Distribution) has declared lost a bank instrument it leaved to Lasselsberger for the payment of products and claimed the opening of criminal investigation against the company for alleged fraud”, Lasselsberger Romania said.

Delta Distribution, distributor of ceramic wall and floor tiles and Lasselsberger Romania were engaged in litigation, after the producer claimed the payment of €10 million debt.

The amount is the equivalent value of the stocks supplied by the manufacturer and not paid by the distributor. Subsequent to the litigation with Lasselsberger, Delta Distribution is also subject to insolvency proceedings, initiated earlier this year.

The ceramics distributor has obtained waivers under the insolvency proceedings deferring debts as part of a debt rescheduling agreement. If insolvency proceedings hadn’t opened, Delta would have been forced to pay debts sooner.

“As far as we are concerned, the €10 million debt to Lasselsberger was paid almost in full, except for few tens of thousands of euros. Lasselsberger, however says the outstanding debt is higher than this. We wait for the court’s decision”, said Dragos Bonea, president and majority shareholder of Delta Distribution.

The Austrian-based group holds one manufacturing facility in Romania, at Cluj-Napoca (Sanex), after it shut down production units in Lugoj and Bucharest in 2008 and June 2009 respectively.

For the time being, the production at the unit in Cluj is halted.

Lasselsberger started its operations in the local market at the end of 2004 and is active through two companies, Lasselsberger SA and Sanex Cluj.