Recently released from prison, “the mother of FNI”, Ioana Maria Vlas speaks, in an interview to “Libertatea”, about her future plans, as well as about the other two people involved in the National Investment Fund scandal, Sorin Ovidiu Vintu and Nicolae Popa. Vlas reiterates that she acted merely as an interface in the FNI case, that she didn’t steal a dime, but had to serve her sentence because she lied. “I hope the Romanian judiciary will charge Vintu and have him pay back what he stole. I, for one, haven’t got what to pay because I haven’t taken a dime,” Vlas said. As regards Nicolae Popa, she said she pitied him, because he wasn’t a bad person. “He was forced to do all the dirty jobs. It’s no wonder SOV sent him money, after all, he was morally indebted to him,” Vlas explained. Vlas says she is trying to adjust to her newly recovered freedom and is pondering what to do next, how to earn a living. “I should think what I could possibly do to earn a living. I have nothing to live off … I have no income. When they arrested me, my pension was blocked,” she complains, adding she may revert to journalism, the job she used to do before being hired at SOV Invest. She recounts she taught some of her fellow inmates how to read and write, announcing she may write a book on Targsor, the women’s prison where she served her sentence.
