Several local hospitals have bought laboratory reagents worth EUR 85 million from three companies controlled by controversial businessman Dorin Cocos, in the last nine years, reports local Riseproject.ro.

In some cases, the prices of these substances were overvalued up to three times. The biggest contracts were awarded in 2012, when a single hospital in Bucharest, the Matei Bals Institute, spent EUR 18 million of its EUR 20.2 million acquisitions budget on reagents.

Much of the money went directly into the pockets of Dorin Cocos and his partners, who withdrew large sums of money from the three companies’ accounts, which also prompted an investigation by the National Office for Prevention and Control of Money Laundering (ONPCSB).

The ONPCSB found that Cocos and his partners had a monopoly on the reagents market and dictated the prices. They managed to achieve this by donating equipment for medical tests to the hospitals. The equipment was designed to use only certain types of reagents, the ones that Cocos sold.

Dorin Cocos, who was married to former tourism minister Elena Udrea, has been investigated by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) in several other cases. The best-known is the Microsoft IT licenses case, in which Cocos was sentenced to two years in prison, no parole, in March this year. The decision is not final.

editor@romania-insider.com