The heirs of Nicolae Malaxa and Max Ausnit, two of the biggest industrialists of interwar Romania are claiming damages for the fortunes seized by the communist regime, in the form of shares in the Property Fund worth nearly 400 million dollars in par value.
The Property Fund, deemed as the biggest business of the next few years on the capital market has an accounting value of 4 billion euros, which, over forthcoming years, will be gradually distributed to those whose properties were abusively seized by the communist regime.
The Property Fund, however, was adamantly criticised by the media in the last few weeks, as its establishment and operation will not serve the purpose it was created for: to reimburse the former owners.
The grandchildren of Malaxa, Georgia Palade Van Dusen, Phillip Palade and Loreen Eleen Malaxa demand 311.87 million dollars in damages, while the demands of Steven Ausnit, one of the two sons of Max Ausnit, amount to over 82 million dollars.
“They arrived at these estimates based on the calculations made in line with the legal methods in force,” explained Corin Trandafir, a partner of the law firm Rubin, Meyer Doru & Trandafir that represents the two families.
“In most cases we can prove reimbursement claims using the C.A.F.I.N. charts at the Finance Ministry that show the last balance sheet before the nationalisation. For other companies, we got data about the shareholder structure at the end of 1947, but AVAS (State Assets Resolution Authority) is somewhat reluctant in this case, as it wants data on the shareholder structure on June 11, 1948, the time of nationalisation,” Trandafir added.
The biggest reimbursement claim filed by Malaxa”s heirs concern the former Nicolae Malaxa SAR company, currently Faur SA, whose value is estimated at 194.6 million dollars and the former Uzinele de Tuburi si Otelarii (Tube and Steel Plants), the current Republica, an 87.9 million-dollar claim.
Ausnit”s heirs demand, among others, reimbursement certificates for Titan Nadrag Calan, 57.2 million dollars, Uzine si Domenii Resita (the current Resita steel plant), 24.18 million dollars and the former Magazine Unite de Ferarie, 0.74 million dollars.
None of them has received any reimbursement certificate until now.
“Our claims are fully documented by using the C.A.F.I.N. charts in most cases. In the case of UDR we even have the actual shares. Still, all sorts of bureaucratic obstacles are being argued.
“The biggest obstacle pertains to AVAS, which also demands proof of the continuity of the factories of that time into the companies that are today. Still, some of the management teams of the companies in question did not want to provide us with a certificate to show they are “heirs” of those companies. This is yet another bureaucratic obstacle, given that even their websites show that there are successors of the companies targeted by our claims,” Corin Trandafir added. catalin.ciocan@zf.ro