Businessman and brokers, sent to court for alleged stock market manipulation in Romania

A Cluj Napoca based businessman and five other individuals were sent to court on allegedly manipulation the capital market in Romania. Businessman Gicu Agenor Gansca, Rares Nilas, general manager of BT Securities brokerage firm and four other individuals are investigated by the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) Cluj. Ana Maria Oprean, financial services agent, Sergiu Dan Dascal, head of operations with BT Securities, Horea Ionut Bobos, economist with Target Capital and lawyer Victor Rusa were also sent to court in the file. They are accused of having interfered in 2007 with the sale of share packages of a firm listed on the Rasdaq platform of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. According to the file, Gansca's manipulation of the stock market consisted in having brokers place buying and selling orders at the same time, with the same price and for the same quantity of shares. The price and quantity of the share had been previously set by a pre-contract, which interferes with the way the stock market should work, according to the accusations. Nilas says the market manipulation accusations are not sustainable, as the Rasdaq market is not a regulated one. This case stemmed from a previous one, which involved Horia Ciorcila, president of Banca Transilvania's administration council, who was also accused for having manipulated the stock market. Gicu Agenor Gansca is listed in the Forbes Top 500 Romanian billionaires with a wealth of around EUR 16 million, from real estate activities. editor@romania-insider.com