Romanian prosecutors start hearings in EADS corruption case
Romanian anti-corruption prosecutors started hearing at least 40 current and former high ranking dignitaries in a case which concerns a border security contract with the defence company EADS, signed a decade ago.
The investigation concerns the contract on the integrated system for state border security signed by EADS Deutschland GmbH and the Romanian Interior Ministry in 2004, which cost the Romanian state about 734 million euro.
The contract, in force between 2004 and 2010, came amid Romania’s efforts to join the European Union and, later, the Schengen area. Romania invested more than one billion euro to secure its borders and has met all the technical criteria to join the space without internal borders, but political decisions made in various Western capitals have kept the country out of the space, along Bulgaria.
The Romanian anti-corruption prosecution DNA says EADS was under conditions to sign deals with subcontracting companies in Romania and middlemen used to distribute smaller contracts in return for commissions. “EADS paid in 2004, right after the contract was signed, a four million euro advance that was to be used to bribe various people,” DNA says, identifying several subcontracting companies and middlemen.
To read the full story, click here.
(Photo: loehrwald/flickr.com)
