Anticorruption Prosecutors Indict Former CFR Manager Mihai Necolaiciuc

05.12.2011 By Ioana Tudor

Romanian anti-corruption prosecutors indicted former manager of the state-owned railway company CFR Mihai Necolaiciuc on charges of public fund misappropriation.

Prosecutors also indicted Viorica Olaeru, former director of the CFR Economic Department, in the same case, on similar charges.

According to the bill of indictment, in 2000, Romania and the European Investment Bank signed a contract providing reimbursable funds to restore flood-damaged infrastructure. The railway company received EUR34.3 million for railway infrastructure restoration. The contract stipulated money would be used exclusively for infrastructure repair.

According to prosecutors, Necolaiciuc and Olaeru used EUR2.7 million of the sum granted to the company for unauthorized purposes.

Necolaiciuc was extradited from the United States and brought back to Romania on April 20 to stand trial. He is currently under arrest.

Necolaiciuc had been in custody since June 2009, when he was detained for residing illegally in the U.S..

He is accused of having made unwarranted investments between 2000 and 2003, while he was the head of national railroad company. He allegedly purchased products at overestimated prices, defrauding the state of some EUR70 million.