On Monday, the lawsuit started against Dorin Cocos, Gabriel Sandu, Nicolae Dumitru and Gheorghe Ştefan for corruption charges in the Microsoft file, based on how Microsoft licences were assigned during a period of ten years.
The DNA prosecutors sent to Court the file of the four defendants, and the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) is to establish the starting date of the trial.
Thus, the investigators closed the inquiry against the four suspects, establishing that proof collected so far was enough to start the lawsuit.
In the Microsoft file, businessmen Dorin Cocos and Nicolae Dumitru, as well as the Mayor of Piatra Neamt Gheorghe Stefan are accused of influence peddling and money laundering, while Gabriel Sandu, Communications and Informational Society Minister during December 2008 – September 2010, was accused of bribe taking and money laundering.
According to press releases issued previously by DNA, the frame contract of renting Microsoft licences on April 15 was signed in onerous circumstances for the state budget, providing the opportunity to detour a 47 per cent discount granted by Microsoft to the Romanian Government and, implicitly, granting payment of commissions to the persons involved, Agerpres reported.
Thus, investigators showed, the frame contract was signed by violating laws on public acquisitions, falsely referring to Fujitsu Siemens Computers’ quality as sole distributor, at a price at least 40 per cent higher than the real one, based on a false requirement.
“In the year 2009, beneficiary institutions used as much as 150,694 licences purchased during 2004 – 2008, based on the Microsoft products enting commercial contract no. 0115 RO and additional acts. The contract ended on April 26, 2009, and, at the same date, the non-exclusive right to use licences expired. As the right to use licences and the effects of the renting contracts expired, a new business opportunity was identified in distributing Microsoft licences to the Romanian Government”, DNA mentioned.
This, in the spring of 2009, there was another meeting of Cocos, Stefan, Sandu and other persons, to discuss general matters related to the possibility that the Ministry of Communications would sign another contract of purchase or renting with Fujitsu Siemens Computers to continue supplying licences.
“During the acquisition procedure, in order to assure the association led by D-CON.NET AG the attribution of the contract, Dorin Cocos demanded from a person involved in the cause undeserved benefits for himself, Gheorghe Stefan and Gabriel Sandu, as follows: EUR 2,700,000 and EUR 1,800,000 for Gabriel Sandu, EUR 4,000,000 for Gheorghe Stefan and EUR 9,000,000 for Dorin Cocos.
The data file of the acquisition procedure revealed that restrictive qualifying criteria were established, to remove from the auction any other offer than the one led by D-CON.NET AG, and, as a result, on August 12, 2009, a frame contract was signed with this association of companies, as suppliers of software products by renting with the option to buy for the Ministry of Communications and Informational Society”, prosecutors pointed out.
Of the four defendants, Gheorghe Stefan was the only one kept in preventive arrest. The High Court issued a definitive decision on March 2 that the suspended Mayor of Piatra Neamt, Gheorghe Stefan, would be placed under preventive arrest until March 27. Stefan has been imprisoned since October 29, 2014.
At the end of February, Mayor Gheorghe Stefan admitted having been a sponsor to the PDL presidential campaign of 2009.
Dinu Pescariu and Claudiu Florica have evaded all charges brought against them by anticorruption prosecutors in the Microsoft case. At least that is what the investigators’ indictment shows. Pescariu and Florica were accused of giving Dorin Cocos a commission of EUR 9 M in order to obtain a contract. Investigators have decided to “close the case for the active bribery and purchase of influence charges since the crimes were denounced by witnesses Florica Claudiu, Pescariu Dinu Mihail and Stan Dragos,” the indictment reads. Dinu Pescariu denounced Elena Udrea, stating that she asked him for EUR 500,000 “in order to solve his legal problems.”
