Romanian businessman Calin Mitica was held on Wednesday by the prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) for charges of bribery, money laundering and other corruption offenses, according to DNA.

The charges are related to several contracts which his firms received from Romania’s state owned railways company CFR, from railway passenger transporter CFR Calatori and from salt producer Salrom.

Six other people were held in this case, three of whom are managers in Calin Mitica’s firms, Transferoviar Grup and Remarul 16 Februarie Cluj, and the other three are managers in CFR, CFR Calatori and Salrom.

Calin Mitica and his employees allegedly bribed the director of the Ocna Dej salt mine to get the contracts for salt railway transport although state owned CFR Marfa had better prices than Mitica’s firm.

The businessman and his accomplices also allegedly bribed a manager of CFR Calatori to get a EUR 50 million passenger cart revamping contract from the state owned company, for their company Remarul 16 Februarie.

Prosecutors have asked the court to issue arrest warrants for 30 days for all the seven people held in this case, but the court decided for home arrest for all of them.

Calin Mitica, 47, owns a group of five companies in the railway sector, which had a cumulated turnover of over EUR 60 million and 1,400 employees last year. Transferoviar Grup, Mitica’s largest company, is a railway freight transporter. He also owns three railway cart repair factories and one railway passenger carrier, Transferoviar Calatori (TFC).

Mitica was 266 in this year’s ranking of the richest people in Romania, with an estimated personal wealth of EUR 12 million, according to Forbes 500 Billionaires list.

Mitica is the second Romanian businessman in the railway sector investigated for corruption. Gruia Stoica, the owner of Grup Feroviar Roman, was also held for investigations earlier this year on corruption related charges.

editor@romania-insider.com