Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) announced on Thursday, August 8, that it started a criminal investigation against the CEO of Oracle Romania Sorin Mindrutescu, for multiple counts of bribery.

Mindrutescu allegedly asked and received eight bribes worth EUR 869,413 between September 2009 and November 2013, from representatives of local IT firms for selling them Oracle software at a discount. The respective IT firms later used the licenses as an unfair advantage in the tenders for public contracts, DNA explained.

The prosecutors didn’t disclose the identity of the IT firms that paid the bribe. However, DNA named the state institutions that eventually purchased the Oracle solutions from them: the National Trade Registry’s Office (ONRC), the Agency for Payment and Intervention in Agriculture (APIA), the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF), electricity transport company Transelectrica, the National Health Insurance House (CNAS) and the Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration (ROMATSA).

A bail of EUR 500,000 was set, DNA informed. Local media indicated that Mindrutescu has already provided real estate guarantees to cover the sum requested by DNA.

Oracle is one of the biggest IT&C companies in Romania, with about 5,000 employees and a turnover of over EUR 200 million. Sorin Mindrutescu, 50, has been working for Oracle since 2001. Before that, he worked in the banking sector, for Bancorex, the Turkish-Romanian Bank and Bank Austria Creditanstalt. He has also been president of Fondul Proprietatea’s Board of Nominees since 2012, but this year he didn’t run for another term. He also repeatedly chaired the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania (AmCham).

In 2013, Mindrutescu was appointed by the Victor Ponta cabinet as president of the board of railway infrastructure company CFR, but he resigned after only five months. In 2011, his name was circulated as a possible replacement for prime minister Emil Boc. 

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)