Billionaire Ioan Micula, about the criminal case in which he is targeted with his brother: “I didn't run away”

Ioan Micula classifies the searches carried out by prosecutors on Monday at the European Food and Drinks group, owned alongside his brother Viorel Micula, as “intimidation” because he is in an old legal conflict with the Romanian state, according to an interview given to the local publication Bihoreanul.

“They are coming to intimidate. We have had a legal conflict with the Romanian state for 20 years, a conflict that has not ended. But what cannot be disputed is that the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes decided that Romania must pay compensation to our companies, and that decision is binding between the parties”, stated Ioan Micula.

The Micula brothers owe 400 million euros to the state as a result of illegally received state aid, according to the decisions of international courts. In the file in which the searches took place yesterday at the brothers' companies in Bihor, the prosecutors suspect that, in order to avoid paying the amounts owed, they alienated assets worth 163 million lei of other companies that were still under the control of the same owners.

Ioan Micula specified for Bihoreanul that neither he nor his brother were summoned and dismissed as “absurd” rumors that they had left the country.

“We didn't run away anywhere. Besides, we didn't receive any summons, we weren't notified of any charges. We'll see what the conclusion will be, what's happening and we'll act accordingly,” he said.

He also emphasized that the prosecutors had full access to the offices and documents, which they picked up without encountering any opposition.

What are the charges of the prosecutors

Ioan and Viorel Micula, who own the Adria and Frutti-Fresh brands, are suspected of coordinating the activity of the European Food and Drinks group of legal entities and implementing a complex criminal mechanism aimed at the illegal transfer of assets belonging to the group's legal entities.

“In fact, from the data and information held in the case, there were indications that two natural persons, who would have coordinated the activity of a group of nine legal persons, would have implemented a complex criminal mechanism aimed at the illegal transfer of the assets in the patrimony of the legal persons within the group to eight other legal persons outside the group, but under the control of the same natural persons”, states the Romanian Police in a press release in which they do not name the two.

This mechanism was created and implemented after the decision issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union, respectively the Court of the European Union, by which it was determined that the Romanian state must recover from the European Food and Drinks Group the sums of money paid to them in the period 2014-2019.

More precisely, the Romanian state had to recover approximately 400 million euros, of which 178 million euros were debits, and the difference represented interests and penalties. The payment of these amounts was qualified by the European courts as illegal state aid.

The main fraudulent methods used to ensure the transfer of assets from the patrimony of legal entities within the European Food and Drinks Group consisted, according to the prosecutors, in forced execution or direct sale/compensation of some debts.

In this file, embezzlement crimes with particularly serious consequences and tax evasion are being investigated.