Authorities in Romania have arrested a former senator for allegedly attempting to offer a 1 million-euro ($1.16 million) bribe to the country\u2019s defense minister to facilitate an arms deal that could be fraudulently financed by a European Union program.<\/p>\n
The deal in question was convoluted: to purchase Russian-made shells in Kazakhstan, import them to Romania, refurbish and relabel them as Romanian shells, then sell them on to Ukraine via an intermediary in Bulgaria.<\/p>\n
The idea was to create a scheme for future business that might obtain funds from the EU\u2019s Rearm Europe<\/strong><\/a> program, launched in March to support weapons manufacturing in the 27-nation bloc. The Russian-type shells are widely used in Ukraine but not produced in EU countries.<\/p>\n RFE\/RL\u2019s Romanian Service<\/strong><\/a> has spoken to two key figures in the case. <\/p>\n One described being approached by former Senator Marius Ovidiu Isaila, another by a Bulgarian businessman called Roman Ivanov Angelov.<\/p>\n In early October, Angelov allegedly led a delegation that approached the head of Romtehnica, an arms trading company that represents the Romanian Defense Ministry, seeking to make use of its contacts in Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n A ‘Suspicious’ Offer<\/strong><\/p>\n “They proposed a deal to me,\u201d Romtehnica chief Razvan Mincu told RFE\/RL. \u201cWe would take ammunition from Kazakhstan and resell it to them.\u201d <\/p>\n But Mincu said the offer looked \u201csuspicious\u201d and that he rejected the proposals.<\/p>\n According to a report by Romanian prosecutors, Isaila approached an intermediary to try to bribe Defense Minister Ionut Mosteanu to facilitate the deal.<\/p>\n RFE\/RL has spoken to the intermediary, politician Octavian Berceanu, who turned whistleblower and made 17 undercover recordings for law enforcement of his meetings with Isaila.<\/p>\n “This is about a group that wants to bring Russian or Russian-type ammunition to Romania, which it can then export to Bulgaria and from there to Ukraine. All (purchased) with European Union money,” he said.<\/p>\n “They offered me 10 million euros ($11.57 million) to be part of this group. That’s the method, they offer impressive sums to politicians to co-opt them.“<\/strong><\/p>\n