German media: Romanian ministers, businessmen and German officials involved in EADS corruption case

After a former Romanian minister and three other known businessmen and politicians have already been arrested in the Microsoft IT licenses case, a new corruption case could further shake up Romanian business and politics. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) is preparing to launch a new public case against former Romanian ministers involved in closing the deal with EADS to secure Romania’s borders, according to anarticle published by the German edition of Huffington Post at the end of last week. Senior Romanian Government officials allegedly received some EUR 60 million in bribes to close the deal with EADS, in late 2004, which has cost Romania EUR 743 million, according to the article. Some of the money came from EU funds. EADS was selected to help Romania secure its borders with a new integrated system for border security. This was the last large contract awarded by former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase’s cabinet. One of the central figures here is Ioan Rus - former general manager at DaimlerChrysler Transylvania (until 2000), then Romanian Interior Minister and also mastermind of the MAI - EADS deal, according to Huffington Post. Ioan Rus is currently Transport Minister in the cabinet led by Victor Ponta. The initial value of the contract was EUR 650 million, which was reduced to EUR 534 million only to be raised by EUR 200 million, in 2009, to a total of EUR 734 million. This is why senior Government officials who were part of Emil Boc’s cabinet in 2009 are also being investigated. Former minister Elena Udrea, who currently runs for presidency, backed by Romania’s current President Traian Basescu, may also be involved in this scandal, according to Huffington Post. Dorin Cocos, Udrea’s ex-Husband, was arrested earlier this week in the Microsoft IT licenses case, for allegedly taking a EUR 9 million bribe to intermediate a new deal between a distributor of Microsoft licenses and the Romanian state. The names Microsoft and Fujitsu Siemens Computers, who are central in the Microsoft licenses case, also appear in the EADS case, according to sources quoted by Huffington Post. Romanian businessman Ion Tiriac, and his friend Klaus Mangold, former manager of German group Daimler-Benz, are also believed to be involved in this affair. And so is former German chancellor Gerhard Schroder, Huffington Post revealed. With such high profile connections, the EADS case has all the ingredients to be even bigger than the Microsoft case.