Romanian prosecutors send 20 people to court in EUR 9 mln bank damage case

A total of 20 people have been sent to court by anticorruption prosecutors in Constanta, being accused of causing a damage of over EUR 9 million to a banking unit in Bucharest, by using fake documents. The 20 people are prosecuted for fraud, forgery and complicity to fraud. According to a statement of the National Anticorruption Department DNA, between November 2007 and August 2008, some of the defendants submitted, through SC Credit Group SRL Constanta, multiple loan applications for individuals, at a banking unit in Bucharest. With the complicity of Maxim Diana, Constantinescu Elena Luiza and Popa Cosmin, loan applicants have misled representatives of the banking unit by submitting fake documents related to their financial possibilities to repay the rates for the requested loans. Serban Costel Catalin, as an expert evaluator, also helped the loan applicants by providing false information in an evaluation report on a property located in the Romanian seaside resort Mangalia, according to DNA. By granting these loans in an illicit way, the banking unit suffered a damage of EUR 9.08 million. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com