Romanian bank owner Carabulea, two others detained for 24 hours in alleged bribery, influence trading case on insurance segment

Romanian entrepreneur and bank owner Ilie Carabulea was detained for 24 hours on Tuesday evening (January 28) and could be arrested for 29 days should the court approve the prosecutors' proposal in a case which involves bribery and trading influence. 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 together with two other people , Marian Mirzac and Radu Mustatea, who were also detained for 24 hours. The three men allegedly created a crime group which managed to fraudulently delay and influence the results of an audit by the Financial Surveillance Authority (ASF) at Carabulea's insurance company Carpatica Asigurari. Mirzac is a former director of Carpatica Asigurari, who later became a commissioner at the surveillance authority ASF. 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