Former Romanian railways company manager gets jail for fraud

A former general manager of Romania’s railways company CFR, Mihai Necolaiciuc, will serve four and a half years in jail after he was found guilty of a EUR 2.7 mln fraud. He was already taken into custody and sent to the Rahova prison near Bucharest, as the recent sentence is final, and does not allow parole. Necolaiciuc already served some time in arrest, between 2009 and 2011, which will be subscripted from his current sentence. Initially, Necolaiciuc was found not guilty, but prosecutors appealed the decision. The Court of Appeal ruled that Necolaiciuc and Viorica Olăeru, CFR’s former economic director, were guilty of defrauding the company after signing a financing contract with the European Investments Bank, which should have helped build railway infrastructure affected by flooding in 2000 and the late 90s. The EUR 34.2 million loan from EIB should have been entirely used for railway infrastructure, but the two paid some EUR 2.7 million to 57 companies for various products and services unrelated to flooded infrastructure. Olăeru will also serve three years in jail, no parole. Besides serving time, the two will also have to pay up the damages to the transport Ministry. editor@romania-insider.com