Who owns the duty-free shops?
There are 17 duty-free shops at the Serbian border with
The shops are owned by nine companies: GFS and Euroavipo own three shops each; Heinrig, A.V.A. Tour, EuroTrade Invest, Transeuro Import Export own two each; and Andradi Com, Marco Impex – 8000 and DGV – Distribution General value own one each.
GFS
GFS Investment Romania was founded in 2006, according to the Romanian National Companies Register. However, the company did business before that under the name GFS Duty-Free Romania. Now it is owned by C.F.S. Trading (Overseas) Limited, an off-shore company based in
GFS benefited from the protection of Nini Sapunaru in 1999. Nini Sapunaru is a member in the National Liberal Party Central Politic Bureau and former head of customs. GFS was founded by Razvan Petrovici, who is the godson of Virgil Magureanu, former head of the Romanian Intelligence Service. Today, records show that the company is being administrated by Petru Chirodea and Radu Lobda. Chirodea said he was once an administrator of a subsidiary of the former company GFS Duty-Free Romania, and said he has nothing to do with this company anymore.
Euroavipo & Euro Trade Invest
The major owners of these companies are the brothers Serban and Emanuel Dobronauteanu, Catalin Bucura and George Ivanescu. These people also own companies dealing with alcoholic beverages and mineral water and have been involved in several financial scandals. Serban Dobronauteanu is the president of both the Romanian Chess Federation and Balkan Chess Federation. George Ivanescu is a business partner of the Social Democratic Party Senator Ion Vasile.
Heinrig Impex & Andradi Com
Andradi Com has its office in a block of flats in
Both companies are connected to Catalin Lascut, the son of Pavel Lascut, former chief deputy of the National Customs Authority Surveillance and Control Department. Lascut was also connected to Santo International, a company that owned a shop in the Moldova Veche harbor during the Omer Radovancovici smuggling network activities. AISPA Ltd., an off-shore company in
Heinrig Impex is based in the Cosntanta free zone. The major shareholders are Henry Rismont, a German citizen, and Gebr. Heinemann SC S Company. Henry Rismont can also be found at the Midocar Company, an auto dealer of VW. The auto dealer has huge contracts worth millions of dollars with the Romanian Intelligence services, the Army, and other agencies.
Transeuro
Lucian Orban and Virgil Visenescu are owners of this company which in turn owns other companies involved in diverse enterprises including cinema. Orban owns the SDV Company with Teodor Cristodor, who was involved in the Omer Radovancovici network. Orban also owns the Turnuri Company with the father of Iulian Teseleanu, chief of the Customs Bureau in Constanta Sud – Agigea Black Sea harbor.
Visenescu said he couldn’t comment specifically about Transeuro affairs because he was only a shareholder at one of the companies that operates duty-free shops and never had an executive job. But he did want to talk about smuggling.
“I can tell you that this word, smuggling, must be proven and demonstrated by the authorities,” Visenescu said. “If there were any illicit activity, the greatest punishment would have been the closing of the companies’ activities. Why haven’t these companies been closed? This means that this trafficking and smuggling were not proven.” Visenescu said that although some duty-free shop employees had been arrested on smuggling-related charges, they were eventually released.
DGV – Distribution General Value
Andrei Panaitescu, a company shareholder, is the former son in law of Iasi County Chief Prosecutor Dan Badarau. Panaitescu was in 2002 a shareholder of Agrostar 2000 together the Social Democratic Party deputy Adrian Ionel and a business partner of Dorin Cocos. Cocos was closely connected to former Romanian Premier Adrian Nastase.
Niculae Chiritescu, another shareholder, said that because the phones were tapped, it was better to meet him at his office. He never appeared. However, he said on the phone that it is normal for authorities to blame the duty free shops for smuggling. But even during the time the shops were closed, authorities were not able to stop smuggling, he said.
Marcoimpex – 8000
According to the National Companies Registrar, major shareholders are Ionel Dumitrescu and Hami Holding, a Swiss company. Hami Holding AG moved its headquarters in April 2007 from Fribourg canton to Ennetbürgen. It is managed by Michael Hänggi.
A.V.A. Tour
The company is owned by the Voicu family from