The presentation of the Banca Transilvania case shows that the investigation started in 2006, the prosecutors made informational investigations, phone calls recordings, the total being kept in 34 volumes. The indictment shows that the main beneficiaries of the capital market manipulation would be Horia Ciorcila ( profit of almost 12 million lei) and Claudiu Silaghi ( profit estimated between 17 and 19 million lei). The prosecutors describe how the two have tried to hide the sums following some tradings.
• In the file, eight people are allegedly accused and sent to trial for capital market manipulation and money laundering, among whom the accused are Horia Ciorcila – CEO of the Banca Transilvania, Claudiu Silaghi – former vice-CEO of the bank, and Gerogios Christofourou – general manager of the Bank of Cyprus Romania.
• At the beginning of the year DIICOT decided a prejudgement attachment for the two accused.
According to the indictment drawn up by the DIICOT Cluj prosecutors, Georgios Christofourou – general manager of Bank of Cyprus – Public Company Limited – Romania branch would have supplied confidential information connected to BT share acquisition by Bank of Cyprus. According to the prosecutors, the beneficiaries of this information were Horia Ciorcila and Claudiu Silaghi. The same Georgios Christofourou is the one who acquired for Bank of Cyprus 46,060,171 shares of Banca Transilvania S.A.
The prosecutors estimated the former vice CEO of the Banca Transilvania Claudiu Silaghi would have obtained a profit of 17 to 19 million lei. The prosecutors consider the profit was obtained incorrectly, by benefiting from inside information from Bank of Cyprus. The prosecutors show that between May and December 2009 Silaghi repeatedly bought at the BVB Bucharest, on behalf of his mother-in-law Marioara Cojocaru 43,646,740 shares of BT SA worth 74,797,448.34 lei.On 7 December 2009, with the help of his mother-in-law Silaghi sold all the shares he had at that moment ( 33,600,000 TLV shares) for 80,640,000.00 lei to Bank of Cyprus Public Company Limited, Nicosia, the prosecutors’ investigation shows.
DIICOT : the whole activity of dissimulation of money source was coordinated by Claudiu Silaghi
Out of the eight sent to trial by DIICOT only Claudiu Silaghi and his wife Mirela are accused of money laundering. The indictment of the file says how it was done:” The whole activity of money source dissimulation was coordinated by Claudiu Silaghi and a part of the documents were signed by his wife, Silaghi Mirela” the official document says. The prosecutors consider that Silaghi would have used several methods to hide the source of money. For example, one million euro were transferred to his daughter. Other two million euro were used to buy with his wife 20 bonds issued by the ministry of finances with nominal value of 100,000 euro each, operation run on 10 December 2009.
Another way of hiding the source of money was the use of offshore. Claudiu Silaghi deposited 6 million lei in an account with BT which he changed into euro, namely 1,490,000 euro at the exchange rate of December 2009. The prosecutors consider that one million euro of the account with BT was sent by Silaghi to Wellane, offshore company registered in Cyprus. The further investigation determined that this offshore belongs to Claudiu Silaghi.
The prosecutors observed that Horia Ciorcila, CEO of BT would have gained by using the inside information from Georgios Christofourou 11,699,576 lei. Ciorcila sold on 7 December 2009 a number of 8,918,671 shares of Banca Transilvania for the nominal price of 2,4 lei. The prosecutors say that Horia Ciorcila made the tradings on behalf of another offshore Dodworth Limited. The profit of almost 12 million lei would be distributed by Horia Ciorcila in several accounts. The official investigation show that these accounts belong to Horia Ciorcila. On 17 March DIICOT issued an ordnance of prejudment attachment for Horia Ciorcila for the accusation of capital market manipulation after having done the same thing with Claudiu Silaghi. Horia Ciorcila could not be contacted for a viewpoint.
Recordings in the file and Robert Rekkers’ statement
Among the 34 volumes of the file, DIICOT prosecutors presented a volume with phone call recordings of the accused. Mainly the discussions between Horia Ciorcila, Claudiu Silaghi and their supposed accomplices. The recordings show they discussed about BT shares and the evolution of the price on the stock exchange. One of the recordings shows that on 7 December 2009 the BT manager Robert Rekkers asked Ciorcila about the tradings on the stock exchange. Permanently, Horia Ciorcila denied he would know who sold and who bought.
In the official statement attached to the file, the BT manager Robert Rekkers said to the prosecutors that the bank required a specialized company to make a study to determine what banking institutions could buy a significant package of shares from the Cluj bank. Following the study there were four banks in Europe who could be interested, among whom Bank of Cyprus. Rekkers mentioned that he did not know about Horia Ciorcila’s tradings.
