Recorder: Hidroelectrica provided 2 million euros of energy without invoice for religious institutions and businessmen with political connections

The Court of Accounts discovered that Hidrolectrica supplied electricity without invoicing for companies whose patrons have connections in the political environment or religious institutions, writes the Recorder. The criminal complaints that followed were dropped by prosecutors.

A report of the Court of Accounts of July 7, 2022 discovered that, in January 2018-June 2022, Hidroelectrica supplied electricity worth about 1.9 million euros to 20 legal entities, without collecting a single leu from them, although the company knew the situation at each point of consumption.

Two monasteries, among the beneficiaries of unpaid electricity

Hidroelectrica has supplied electricity to commercial companies and religious institutions for years without charging a single leu. The electricity came from Hidroelectrica, there were contracts, but no invoices were cut. Everything came to light as a result of a routine control carried out by the auditors of the Court of Accounts at the company with majority state capital.

According to the Recorder, the companies from which Hidroelectrica did not collect the money for energy have in common the fact that they had political connections. Among them were:

• Gerom International SRL, a company that leads to the former prefect of Hunedoara, Aurel Serafinceanu, received over 100,000 euros in unpaid electricity.
• Valdo Forest Industries SRL, a company from Neamț that deals with wood cutting, which the press has shown is controlled from the shadows by the local PNL councilor Constantin Dogariu – unpaid current of over 25,000 euros.
• NGM Leonard SRL, a garment factory in Pașcani linked to the former PDL local councilor Leonard Rusu – unpaid current of over 10,000 euros.

Arcelor Mittal and Romaero benefited from the same preferential regime. Under the same conditions, the Metropolis of Moldavia and Bucovina, the Secu and Suzana monasteries and a parish from Bucharest – Buna Vestire Bellu received electricity, worth over 600,000 lei.

Preferential regime for someone close to Virgil Popescu

But the large unpaid amount was discovered at the company controlled by a former PNL parliamentarian, a close relative of a former Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu. It is about Alin Udriște, vice president of the Mehedinți organization of the PNL, during the period when Virgil Popescu is the leader of the organization.

But at the top of the list of private companies that benefited from electricity from Hidroelectrica without paying is a company controlled by an ex-PNL parliamentarian, close to former Energy Minister Virgil Popescu. Aurora Trust from Drobeta Turnu-Severin accumulated debts of 3,000,000 lei at Hidroelectrica, before going bankrupt.

Hidroelectrica asked to be registered with the credit table on June 14, 2022, one day after the legal deadline for this procedure had expired. For this reason, the request was contested by other creditors of Aurora Trust: a company of Alin Udriște's brother and by the latter's wife.

After the audit by the Court of Accounts, Hidroelectrica complained to DIICOT about an “organized criminal group” consisting of two of its own employees and a representative of Aurora Trust SA. DIICOT did not find any criminal group, so the rest of the charges were passed to the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Bucharest Court. Here, the case was closed on June 25, 2025. “The act is not provided for by the criminal law,” explains the prosecutors' unit in a response to the Recorder.

On the same day, Wednesday June 25, 2025, DNA files, under the signature of the chief prosecutor from the anti-corruption section, Ionuț Ardelean, the criminal complaint filed by the Court of Accounts two years ago. “The act is not provided for by the criminal law – as the condition of typicality is not fulfilled (conformity of the concrete act with the one described by the legal norm)”, reasons the DNA prosecutor in the classification order.

From the same document we learn that, after the inspectors of the Court of Accounts discovered how electricity was being given under the table, 15 of the 20 beneficiaries had paid all their debts to Hidroelectrica by the beginning of this year. These include all the churches and monasteries. Three other companies either had small debts or had staggered their payments.

Read the full investigation on the Recorder.