Court orders 12 years in jail for private investor who sent two Romanian greenhouses to fraudulent bankruptcy after privatization

The former manager of the industrial-scale greenhouses Oradea and Codlea, Maria Schutz was recently sentenced to 12 years in prison with execution over the fraudulent privatization of the two companies. The court decision can however be further appealed. Three other people were sentenced to jail in this case: Corneliu Popa, former general manager of the State Domains Agency and Mihai Ciobanu, former head of contracts department within the same agency, both got 10 years in jail. Ion Dascălu, associate with Sere Codlea SA, got two years in jail. Popa, Ciobanu and Schutz also have to pay some USD 3 million to the State Domains Agency, covering the value of the investment that they failed to make. Schutz will also have to pay some EUR 3.1 million to the tax administration and some EUR 770,000 to the thermal energy supplier Electrocentrale SA Oradea. Other fines are due to the local tax administration in Brasov and to the Brasov Agriculture Directorate, some EUR 5 million The court also annulled all the sale contracts for assets of the two greenhouses, after 2000 for Codlea and after 2002 for Brasov. The case against Maria Schutz was brought to court in December 2007 by the National Anti-corruption Direction DNA, for abuse with serious consequences and for fraudulent bankruptcy. According to the prosecutors, the four convicted in this case cost the state EUR 5 million by their frauds during the privatization and after the privatization of the greenhouse companies Orser Oradea and Sere Codlea SA. In 2002, the State Domains Agency head Corneliou Popa signed a contract selling shares in Orser SA Oradea and a concession for a 104-hectare plot to Worldser Ţuglui, represented by Maria Schutz. Worldser won the contract, despite having offered a lower price than another bidder, and pledged to invest USD 2 million in the company within two years. The term was prolonged to five years, after the investor failed to live up to the pledge in the first two years. During the contract, Maria Schutz presented fake investment data,. But in reality she sold the assets of Orser SA Oradea to another company she controlled, by making it look like the greenhouse company had debts to the other company she owned. The same scheme was used in the privatization of Sere Codlea in Brasov. The greenhouse company was sent to bankruptcy by using the same third company to transfer its assets. editor@romania-insider.com