Voicu Radescu, owner of Green Hours Club, on tax evasion accusations: “A B-movie with bad mobsters”

Voicu Radescu, the owner of Green Hours club in Bucharest, who has been recently accused of EUR 50,000 tax evasion and was briefly taken into custody, recently made a public statement saying that the accusations against him could be “the result of a set-up”. Shortly after his release, following the judge's decision not to hold him for 29 days, the club owner admitted his “mistakes and irregularities”, adding that he is ready to “reset his inner self”. Yet, according to his personal opinion, these “bureaucratic deficiencies”, as he calls them, do not prove that he is “dangerous to the general public” and were not a reason to arrest him. Radescu denies tax evasion and blames his former business partners, saying that he also needs to adjust his “bureaucratic capabilities”. He accuses Florentina Racoviteanu, a former club manager and business partner and Daniel Emanoil Gregory, owner of several other clubs in Bucharest, including El Comandante, El Dictador, La Historia of breaking the contract they had to run Radescu's bar. “Their main contractual obligation was to pay a rent and a fixed percentage of the administrative expenses for the building at Calea Victoriei, 120. ” According to Radescu, his partners failed to accomplish their obligations within the granted period and their “repeated delays in paying the rent led to serious financial difficulties for Green Hours.” After deciding to end the contract with the two partners, Radescu faced their anger: “By doing this, I also apparently became undesirable for Mr.Daniel Emanoil Gregory (a character on the rise) who insinuated that he's very well connected in both the business and political circles.” Soon after, the Police investigation into his accounting started. However, the club owner seems confident that his lawyers will handle this case properly. Voicu Radescu, known as a manager with a cultural bent, gives an insight into his own dilemma: “This was the beginning of something that had already started to look like a B-movie with bad mobsters - except this time I was part of it.” The section in his public statement, named “Climax” in a suggestive way , implies that the investigation conducted by the policemen was actually abusive and intimidating : “handcuffs were thrown on the table; the timing was deliberately chosen to make sure I had to spend the night in a police cell,” he said. Radescu was taken into custody on August 29th, after prosecutors said he failed to register the sale of some products at the bar into his accounting. He is now being charged with tax evasion. Iulia Marin