Romanian anti-fraud chief, state secretary resign amid tax evasion and corruption probe

Mariana Vizoli, a state secretary in the Ministry of Finance, and Daniel Diaconescu, the chief of the Anti-Fraud Department within Romania's tax agency ANAF, resigned after the National Anticorruption Department (DNA) placed them under judicial control in the EUR 132 million “Murfatlar” tax evasion case. Finance minister Anca Dragu accepted their resignations on Friday, according to a statement from the Ministry of Finance. The case targets a complex fraud scheme involving several alcohol producers of the Euroavipo group, and was nicknamed “Murfatlar” because Romanian wine producer Murfatlar is the best-known company involved in this case. DNA prosecutors placed Mariana Vizoli and Daniel Diaconescu under judicial control for 60 days, starting October 20. They applied the same measure on three other directors from the Ministry of Finance and ANAF. All of them are charged with abuse of office. The measures were taken in the case in which Murfatlar’s shareholder George Ivanescu and six other people were arrested for tax evasion. According to prosecutors, four companies owned or controlled by George Ivanescu, Catalin Bucura, Gheorghe Zlotea, and other people caused a damage of more than EUR 130 million to the state budget by avoiding paying taxes to the state. Related to the five officials, DNA prosecutors say they broke the law in the authorization procedure, thus helping two of the companies involved in the investigation get undue benefits, and contributing to the damage brought on the state budget. Romanian “Wine King”, nine others arrested in tax evasion case Romanian tax inspectors find EUR 136 mln damages in “Murfatlar” case Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com