Lukoil Romania is under prosecution, together with 14 people, by the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) in a tax evasion file of RON 9 million.
The DIICOT prosecutors have detained five people – Matei Eugen, Gherghel Amalia, Ceban Sergiu, Tirla Calin, and Izvernari Dănuţ Nelu – on the charge of establishing an organized criminal group, tax evasion and complicity to tax evasion, digi24.ro informs.
“During 2009-2010, the defendants Matei Eugen, Gherghel Amalia, Ceban Sergiu, Tirla Calin, Izvernari Dănuţ Nelu, Negru Dumitru Florin, Mazālu Petru, Mara Bogdan Marius, Novăcescu Gheorghe Tony, Vasile Angelica, Gorea Florentin and Slevoaca Cristina formed four criminal groups organized for the purpose of tax evasion in continued form by creating a fictitious circuit for the acquisition and delivery of road bitumen originating from VAYA LTD Bulgaria and LUKOIL NEFTOCHIM BOURGAS AD Bulgaria, with the purpose of scripted interposing of some companies that have evaded in this way from the payment of the related VAT and the profit tax,” DIICOT says.
Prosecutors say they “were assisted in the criminal activity by S.C. LUKOIL ROMANIA S.R.L. through the legal representative suspect T. C., in the sense of interposing a UK merchant shipping circuit.”
The damage caused to the state budget is RON 9,139,242, representing VAT payment and profit tax.
According to the source, DIICOT Bacau with judicial police officers in the Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and those of the brigades to combat organized crime in Bucharest, Bacau, Timisoara, Suceava, Iasi, Ploiesti and Pitesti have conducted 23 home searches in Bucharest and in the mentioned counties.
“The Bacau Court ordered the measure of judicial control for defendants Matei Eugen, Gherghel Amalia, Ceban Sergiu, Tirla Călin and Izvernari Dănuţ Nelu. For defendants Negru Dumitru Florin, Mazâlu Petru, Mara Bogdan Marius, Novăcescu Gheorghe Tony, Vasile Angelica, Şinca Valentin, Gorea Florentin and Slevoacă Cristina, DIICOT – Territorial Service Bacau decided the preventive measure of judicial control,” DIICOT informs.
In 2015, Lukoil was involved in another file. On August 3, 2015 the prosecutors with the Prosecutor’s Office upon the Court of Appeals Ploiesti have completed investigations in the Lukoil file and have ordered the prosecution of Petrotel Lukoil SA Ploiesti and of SC Lukoil European Holding Bvatrium Netherlands. The companies were accused of money laundering, using the company’s credit in bad faith and complicity to money laundering. The damage is unprecedented among such cases, worth over EUR 2 billion, amount allegedly taken out of Romania. In this file, seven people were the accused, including the Director General of Petrotel Lukoil SA Ploiesti.