Criminal group in a company under the Ministry of Energy. Fictitious purchases of almost 10 million lei

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DIICOT police officers and prosecutors carried out, on Wednesday, 39 searches for the destruction of an organized criminal group established in the National Company for the Control of Boilers, Lifting Installations and Pressure Vessels, subordinate to the Ministry of Energy. Several of its employees would have made over 400 fictitious purchases in the name of the company, misappropriating the money.

“On the 24th of May, the police officers of the Department for Combating Organized Crime, together with the prosecutors of the Department for Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism – Central Structure, implemented 39 home searches, in a case in which investigations are being carried out , under the aspect of committing the crimes of constituting an organized criminal group, embezzlement with particularly serious consequences and money laundering”, the Romanian Police announced, on Wednesday, in a press release.

For their part, the DIICOT prosecutors specify that, during May 2020, officials from CNCIRSA (a company with full state capital subordinated to the Ministry of Energy) constituted a criminal group organized for the purpose of committing the crime of embezzlement (appropriation of sums of money from the company’s patrimony).

“In order to carry out the criminal activity, the members of the upper level of the organized criminal group benefited from the help of other people, who carried out convergent criminal activities that brought them profit. The criminal mechanism involved making fictitious purchases of goods from companies controlled by the members of the criminal group, persons who joined the criminal group or persons close to the members of the criminal group, through direct attribution in the SEAP platform”, the judicial authorities also sent.

According to them, the goods or products were not actually delivered, but the value of these purchases was paid by the company, the sums of money being withdrawn in cash from the ATM or from the counters of the banking units and later distributed among the members of the organized criminal group.

“Subsequently, in order to reduce the stock of goods thus purchased from the company’s management, they were released for consumption to the departments or services within the national state company – Central Structure or to subordinate units – Regional Branches and Territorial Work Points. In this way, the organized criminal group, which acted from May 2020 until now, managed to embezzle the institution’s budget with the total amount of 9,699,480.08 lei, coming from 485 (fictitious) public acquisitions of goods (from the categories stationery and office equipment, cleaning and hygiene, construction materials, electrical accessories and other consumable products)”, the press release also states.

19 people will be taken to the headquarters of DIICOT – Central Structure, for the hearing.