Managers at Romanian insurance firm spend taxpayers' money on Cartier watches, holidays in Ibiza, Cannes, Disneyland

Two former executive directors of state owned insurance company Exim Asig supposedly spent EUR 240,000 of the company's money on personal expenses, including Cartier watches, luxury products from the Louis Vuitton shop in Bucharest, clothing items from a luxury fashion house in Milan and family or personal holidays in Ibiza, Cannes and Disneyland Paris, according to a report issued by the Romanian Prime Minister's Control Taskforce. Radu Frincu, ex CEO of Exim Asig from May 2010 to July 2013, and Constantin-Marius Banu, a member of the company's executive board from July 2010 to July 2013, paid for some extravagant purchases from the company's accounts. They allegedly spent about EUR 46,500 for personal holidays abroad, with their families or other people that had no connection with the company they were working for. Frincu went to Ibiza and Cannes and to the Austrian winter resort of Ischgl, while Banu took his family to Disneyland Paris and to San Benedetto del Torino in Italy. They also spent large amounts of money on luxury products. Frincu bought RON 16,735 (EUR 3,760) worth of products from Louis Vuitton, a Cartier watch, worth RON 15,800, two rings worth RON 22,246 and a Vertu telephone worth RON 43,650. He also had a Black Berry Porsche Design, worth RON 11,065, from the company, which he never returned, a LED 3D Smart TV, worth RON 10,400, and even had the company pay RON 8,326 for four Pirelli winter tires for his BMW X6. Both Frincu and Banu also spent about EUR 26,500 on shirts and other fashion items they purchased from the Alessandro Martorana fashion house in Milan. In addition to these and other smaller receipts they reckoned up from the company's money, Frincu also spent RON 358,687 (or some EUR 80,000) on a credit card that was supplied by the company, without returning the money. The full report provided by the Government is here (in pdf, in Romanian). According to the report, Exim Asig made RON 23.46 million (EUR 5.28 million) losses from 2010 to 2013. Exim Asig is 94 percent owned by Eximbank. The Romanian state holds 95 percent of Eximbank's shares, which means the Romanian Government indirectly controls Exim Asig. editor@romania-insider.com