Interest groups formed by dignitaries of the Romanian state and interposed in the name of which the money is collected. Political protection from the top of the most important institutions. Fortunes too big to fit within the borders of the country, hidden in real estate in Western Europe.
It’s a phenomenon that dominated post-December Romania, most of the time accompanied by press scandals and clashes between rival camps. Now that political dissensions have melted into an all-powerful coalition, great fortunes are being built in perfect silence, candidly watched over by timid prosecutors and party-paid journalists.
A year ago, I started following such a story, after a regional newspaper in France wrote about a group of Romanian investors who bought a castle in Hexagon to turn it into a luxury hotel. Although they were talking about a group of Romanians, the French mentioned only one name – Benjamin Gont – by all appearances, a person in the role of a screen.
We went to France to find out the story of the castle bought by the mysterious Romanian investors and returned to the country to track the money. We have discovered a group created and protected by political people who are at the top of the governing coalition. A group that took control of the country’s most famous tourist resort, turning it into a source of wealth.
This story is not, however, just about riches that cannot be justified. It is mostly about the thirst for success of some people who hold public office. About a cardboard aristocracy, which can no longer conceive of sharing power and breathing the same air as ordinary mortals.
A castle in France, a palace of one thousand square meters built in the middle of an architectural reserve, a street built for one man, rigged auctions, name days celebrated in protocol villas of the state, under the guard of SPP soldiers.
All in one story:
Tags: Carpathian Cartel
