Chief of Mission of IFC Romania, Ana Maria Mihăescu, was recently the victim of a theft of shares of over 200,000 Euros, and the case is already on trial in the Court of Sibiu.
The IFC is the investment division of the World Bank.
The fact that the incident happened to such a high-profile individual, would suggest that anything can happen on the Romanian stock market and that the Cristian Sima scandal and the accusations of fraud at Carpatica Invest, last year, haven't frightened anybody. Perfectly normal, since nobody ever gets blamed for anything, from brokers to the Bucharest Stock Exchange, the Central Depository, The Financial Oversight Authority (FSA) and the police.
Ana Maria Mihăescu lost over 900,000 lei (200,000 Euros) as a result of the actions of eight individuals, who used a forged identification card to trade shares which she owned on listed companies and to take the money out from her account.
According to a press release of the Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Sibiu, at the end of July, defendants Livia Galea, Bogdan Belu Koteleş, Nicolae Paul Macovei, Aron Hanţiu, Mihai Corcoveanu, Dorel Ioniţă, Ştefan Adrian Fleşer and Ioan Pungilă succeeded, "between February and April 2013, in misleading the officials of the brokerage firm, Actinvest SA of Braşov, whom they have persuaded, using forged identification, to sell the shares owned by victim M.A.M. (ed. note: Ana Maria Mihăescu), causing her a loss of over 900,000 lei, which the defendants withdrew from the banking center of Raiffeisen Bank specifically designed for such operations".
The prosecutors did not specify where the thieves got the information pertaining to the portfolio of the head of the IFC. In order to trade the shares all it takes for them is to be transferred from the Central Depository to the broker.
The case is on the docket of the Court of Sibi
