atefan Boboc brought to court

Prosecutors investigating the bankruptcy of the National Investment Fund (FNI) had to issue an order for the hearing of atefan Boboc, chairman of the National Securities Commission (CNVM), after investigators waited for him the whole day yesterday at the General Prosecutor’s Office. Thus, Boboc, accompanied by his lawyer, had to be brought to court by two policemen. Boboc might be accused of abuse in office if it is proved that he did not observe norms regarding fund surveillance. “CNVM has not operated any control with the FNI, since its establishment to this day,” colonel Dumitru Strava, investigator of the FNI case, said yesterday.

For the penal investigation against Boboc to be initiated, the Law on the organisation and functioning of CNVM will have to be modified, since “Boboc enjoys a certain immunity,” said Ion Ionescu, general prosecutor deputy. He specified that the Government was to issue yesterday an ordinance meant to modify the law.

Until yesterday, prosecutors issued arrest orders under the accusations of fraud and forgery against five persons within the management of SOV Invest: former chairman Ioana Maria Vlas, Gavril Batran and Ioan Dita, members in the Management Board, the economic director Mihaela Sima and the external independent censor Marius Andrei. “The latter simply authenticated the false data the FNI administrator dictated to him, which he then sent to CNVM, without verifying them against the fund’s management,” colonel Strava said.

Marian Petrescu, who has been recently elected as head of SOV Invest, is also investigated by policemen.

Investigators also ordered yesterday a sequester over movables held by the persons placed under accusation within FNI scandal, the identification of all SOV Invest-FNI accounts and their blocking, as well as a sequester over all movables and real estate assets belonging to SOV Invest-FNI, to the end of offsetting damages.