A 35-year-old businessman who was arrested in Romania for attempting to bribe a NATO official, is being taken to court.
Kathimerini understands, on the basis of information from police sources, that the ringleaders of the Crete-based gang involved in drug and weapons trafficking were asked to pressure a detained businessman not to give away his partner in a case involving the attempted bribery of two NATO officials in Romania.
This side case is not included in the official file judicial authorities are compiling on the gang for reasons of keeping the other investigation as discreet as possible.
The arrested businessman and his partner do business with NATO’s naval base at Souda Bay, Crete, and wanted to secure a €9 million contract to supply NATO ships in Romania. One of the partners went to Romania and attempted to bribe two officials of NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), allegedly offering €200,000. The businessman, M.B., was arrested on a warrant issued in the US.
The partner, G.G., contacted the gang ringleaders and asked them to pressure M.B. not to implicate them, according to records of police eavesdropping on gang cellphones. “He must forget the name G.,” the partner said. The ringleaders, two Hania-based brothers, said they would intervene.
M.B., initially put in a cell shared with two others and allowed only a daily hour’s courtyard break, was placed under house arrest, in an apartment rented by his lawyer, in March, and a few days ago was allowed to travel to Hania to visit his family. A warrant against G.G. was canceled in July.