The Patriciu Octopus Toils

The liberal politicians members of the Institute for Free Initiative (ILI), as well as the ones the prosecutors indicated as the people that cashed fees from the foundation led by businessman Dinu Patriciu swear they hadn’t taken any money, because they did everything gratuitously.

According to the investigation of the prosecutors from the Supreme Court of Justice, the former SIE (the Service of External Information), Catalin Harnagea, the Minister of External Affairs, Razvan Ungureanu, former Presidential Adviser Dorin Marian, the leader of the NLP (National Liberal Party) Deputies, Crin Antonescu, Cosea Dumitru, Andrei Alexandru, Valean Adina, Radu Boroianu, Pavel Antoniu, and Cojocaru Wanda are some of the people that got paid for their services for the ILI Foundation.

ACCOUNTS. 104.159.360.971 ROL have been transferred into the bank accounts of the ILI Foundation from the accounts of Dan Patriciu, TRG Rompetrol SA, Rompetrol Chemicals Romoil, NLP. This is the money suspected of coming from the felonies of the businessperson and his partners. 53.877.792.401 ROL have been transferred through the account RoBACXoooooooo31176310 ROL. 531.968 RON have been transferred through the bank account Ro27 BACXoooooooo31176310 RON, and 1.450.383 USD, the equivalent of 44.961.885.570 ROL, have been transferred through the bank account RoBACXoooooooo31176021 USD.

PAYMENTS. Dinu Patriciu, Cristian Boureanu, Calin Popescu Tariceanu, Dan Rusanu, Crin Antonescu are all part of the leading board of the ILI Foundation. The money that got into the foundation’s accounts have been used afterwards for the payments of the above mentioned VIPs or for the payments towards treasury (taxes, solidarity fund), payments towards Ziua, Icar, Happy Tour etc. Other sums of money have been cashed and there have been transfers towards other foundations like Mathesis, Danubius, Lambda, Horia Rusu.

BOUREANU. In his turn, Liberal Deputy Cristian Boureanu said that the members of the leading board were never paid. "I did not take any sum of money from the Foundation since it was initiated. Moreover, as far as I am concerned, I can say that I haven’t received any kind of support from the ILI Foundation during the electoral campaign or a tip of any kind", Boureanu stated. In the same time, he showed that, during the last four years, he did not attend any meeting of the Leading Board. He added that he knew there was an official decision according to which payments had to be done only to the employees.

TARICEANU. "First of all, he did not take any money, and, when the Prime Minister is a member of the Leading Boards of certain foundations, he doesn’t do it to be paid, he does it gratuitously. Second, before making public such information, you should have asked for a point of view and get informed, to ask whether the Prime

Minister did it for money. It is not normal to start such accusations without proofs. You should have raised all those questions about a public document for which the PM is responsible by his signature without having any solid proofs about it", Oana Marinescu, the Government’s spokesperson, stated when she was asked about the sums of money PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu received from the ILI Foundation. The President of the Chamber, Bogdan Olteanu, did not receive any money either, and he didn’t give any money to the Foundation. He says he never attended any meeting of the ILI Foundation.

MELESCANU. "None of the funding members have been remunerated for this. These are actions in which we got involved and we contributed with our presence, with our activity and without any material compensation. I can say I gave some of my money, I drove my own car to certain actions and I paid with my money", Liberal Teodor Melescanu stated for us. He added that if anyone shows that he took money, no matter the sum, from the ILI Foundation he will give it to the orphanages.

NICOLAI. "The accusations against the members of the Foundation are very embarrassing. As a funding member, I did not take part in the group of the ones that got paid", Norica Nicolai, NLP Senator, said in her turn. "I am not the one that has to know the source of the money. The Administration Council has to take care of that", Nicolai added.