The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) said it had started to prosecute several officials of telecom giant RCS&RDS over the broadcasting rights for Romania’s main football championship in a deal that covered the 2008-2011 seasons. The former head of the Professional Football League (FRF), Dumitru Dragomir, is accused of bribe taking and complicity to money laundering, according to Business-Review.eu.
Several current and former executives at RCS&RDS are being investigated in the same case. Ioan Bendei, the former administrator of the company, is prosecuted for bribery and money laundering.
Alexandru Oprea, who left the company in 2015 following an 18-year stint at RCS&RDS, is accused of complicity to bribery. Oprea was general manager and president of the administration board of RCS&RDS at the time when prosecutors claim that he broke the law.
Mihai Dinei, the former head of the legal operations at RCS&RDS, is accused of complicity to bribery and money laundering.
The son of Dumitru Dragomir, Bogdan Dumitru Dragomir, and the owner of another company are also prosecuted in the same case.
RCS&RDS was part of a consortium that paid EUR 101 million for the broadcasting rights of the main football championship starting 2008. However, the firm wanted to get a better deal starting 2009, when the financial crisis hit Romania. The broadcasting deal covered three seasons.
“Thus, to determine the defendant Dumitru Dragomir to support the interests of the cable firm at the level of the LPF, in relation to the contract for the broadcasting rights, on 15.08.2009, between the company controlled by the LPF head, represented by the suspect Badita Florin-Bogdan, and the company administered by the suspect Bendei Ioan a joint venture contract was closed. The content of the contract was made by the sides so that it would look like a regular deal and to mask better their real internal aim, which was to give and take bribes. Based on this contract, between 18.08.2009 – 10.05.2011, the cable company paid the respective firm, in 27 tranches, the sum of EUR 3.1 million (RON 13 million).
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