Romanian bank and insurance firm owner and financial surveillance authority board member arrested for 29 days in bribery, trading influence case

Romanian bank owner Ilie Carabulea, who also owns insurance firm Carpatica Asig, and Marian Mirzac, a former GM of the insurance firm, were arrested for 29 days on Wednesday, January 29, after being detained for 24 hours. A third person, Radu Mustatea, a member of the Carpatica Asig board, who had been detained for 24 hours too, is not allowed to leave Romania for 30 days. The Bucharest court's decision about the arrests is not final, and can be appealed. The three are part of a case which involves bribery and trading influence, and which also involves the wife of Finance Minister Daniel Chitoiu. Laura Chitoiu works at the Romanian Financial Surveillance Authority and is believed to have favored a candidate for the helm of Carpatica Asig. Carabulea, who owns the bank Banca Carpatica, as well as insurance company Carpatica Asigurari, the latter via companies Atlassib and Transcar,is accused of trading influence and bribery. From his position of non-executive member of ASF’s board as of April 2013, Mirzac tried to protect Carpatica insurance firm and help it avoid having its license suspended. Radu Mustatea, a member of Carpatica Asigurari’s board, and former Astra Asigurari president, acted as intermediary between Carabulea, who financed the group, and Mirzac. The group was supported by two executive managers within the surveillance authority. Ilie Carabulea offered a EUR 80,000 Audi A8 car to Marian Mirzac in May 2013, in exchange for his support, and the deal was covered up via a sales contract at a much lower rate than the market price. In August 2013, Carabulea also gave Mirzac some EUR 8,900 which was registered as compensating a contract clause which never existed. This is not Carabulea’s first encounter with the law, as he served jail time between April and October 2012 for bribery and trading influence. He had been sentenced to one and a half years in jail, but was released earlier for good behavior and for having worked in the jail’s library. The businessman had resigned from the helm of local lender Banca Carpatica, which he also founded. He is the main shareholder of the bank, with 46 percent of the shares. This was the biggest corruption case involving a Romanian businessman at the time, and concerned one of the country’s wealthiest: Carabulea, 65, ranked 22nd in the Forbes 2010 ratings for Romania, with an estimated wealth of EUR 200 million. editor@romania-insider.com