Romania charges 2 pharmaceutical managers with tax evasion

BUCHAREST, Romania – Romanian prosecutors have charged two managers of a pharmaceutical company, which has already been indicted on charges of diluting disinfectant, with tax evasion and money laundering.

The anti-corruption prosecution directorate said Thursday that Hexi Pharma manager Flori Dinu, and Uliana Ochinciuc, the partner of the late CEO who died when his car slammed into a tree last month, have been charged.

Her brother, Radu Ochinciuc, and Miron Victor Panaitescu, a manager of several companies, are charged with money laundering.

None have commented on the charges.

Prosecutors also said two Cyprus-registered companies were suspected of aiding money laundering and tax evasion worth 7.8 million lei ($1.95 million) from 2008-2016. The money obtained is said to have been transferred to banks in Cyprus and Romania.

In recent weeks before his death, the company’s CEO, Dan Condrea, is said to have transferred 550,000 euros ($615,000) into the bank accounts of Ochinciuc and her brother to conceal illegally obtained money.

Prosecutors said they have frozen assets related to the probe, including properties in Bucharest, 32 cars, production equipment used by the company and bank accounts in Romania, Switzerland, Germany and Cyprus.

Hexi Pharma was indicted on May on charges that disinfectants it sold to hospitals and Romania’s troops in Afghanistan were heavily diluted and ineffective. The case has caused public outrage.