British Serious Fraud Office Arrests Two In Frigates Deal Sold To Romania

The British Serious Fraud Office arrested Wednesday in London a British consultant with BAE Systems and his Romanian wife, in the sell of two decommissioned frigates to the Romanian navy.

Barry George, 61, and Georgiana George, 42 allegedly received around one million pounds as a secret commission, while a Romanian politician still to be identified received a six million pounds secret commission.

Most of the money paid by Romania for the two frigates built in the ‘80s went in fact into their upgrading. BAE Systems did the work, while Romania borrowed the around 116 million pounds needed from foreign banks.

The Romanian state guaranteed the loans, and the contract it sealed with the British is an off-set one, meaning the British would have to buy military equipment for the same amount of money from Romania.

On the contract stay the names of Romania’s PM at the time, social-democrat Adrian Nastase; of the deputy defense minister Gheorghe Matache; and of the representative of the Ministry of Finance, Gheorghe Gherghina.

BAE Systems has a local subsidiary, BAE Systems (Romania) SRL, headquartered in the Constanta port city.

Georgiana George is shareholder in a Bucharest based company, AXIS TRADE & CONSULTING SRL. This is the company identified during the Serious Fraud Office investigation. Also shareholder in the company is her mother, Elena Dan.

Dan was shocked to hear the news of her son-in-law’s arrest, as she was expecting him to arrive in Bucharest today.

The Georges own other two other companies, set up in Britain in the ‘80s: ROM-AIR LIMITED and ROM-CAR LIMITED.

Witnesses to the police raid of the Georges’ home in London said the two lived on a grand scale, the wife having for instance an 8,000-pound worth shoe collection.

Translated by Anca Paduraru