Dirty Accounts - The "Dragon" Network

The Romanian and foreign authorities are looking for the accounts in which the members of the "Dragon" transnational crime organization deposited the money obtained from felonies.

Recently, several accounts opened at banks in Monaco have been closed. These are collecting accounts where, according to the authorities, dirty money coming from the felonies of a vast crime organization called the "Dragon" was gathered. According to some well-informed judicial sources, this network has "branches" in many states like Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Andorra, Cyprus. It seems it has extended to South America as well. The main occupations of the mob group: pandering, guns traffic, money laundry. The blocking of the accounts happened at the request of the Monaco authorities approximately 10 days ago. Judicial sources stated for Jurnalul National that there are Romanian politicians and "people of the better sort" of the Romanian society, which seem to protect the Romanian "Dragon", among the "beneficiaries" of this group’s activity.

OIL KINGS. Five accounts blocked in Monaco. The RAFO tycoon, Corneliu Iacobov, has two million dollars blocked, and another stalemate is the Balkan Petroleum president himself, Alexandru Iancu, according to the quoted sources. The felonies for which the accounts had been blocked are many, but the most important of them is money laundry. The Romanian authorities investigate Corneliu Iacobov on the RAFO deal. He was in temporary arrest for approximately three months starting with the beginning of March. The prosecutors of the High Court of Justice have also taken in the Iancu brothers, Octavian and Alexandru, on the 15th of February 2005, also for illegal deals regarding Iacobov’s refinery. Constantin Margarit has been taken in at the same time. They are accused of felonies with a prejudice of 1,350 billion lei (ROL). Iacobov had been arrested at the beginning of March and released on the 27th of May.

LEAVE OF ABSENCE. This summer, Corneliu Iacobov left Romania. They say he ran from the law. He came back in the country and stated he had spent his holiday in Monte Carlo. There, according to our sources, he had withdrawn important sums of money from the same account that was closed 10 days ago. We have to say that, at that time, he had all his Romanian accounts blocked. The two million dollars that are in hock now are the remains of the withdrawals in the summer. It looks like Corneliu Iacobov is very affected by this measure at present. He didn’t even think about remaining without the money outside the country. Otherwise, he would have emptied that account. The sources weren’t able to say anything about the sum of money of the Balkan Petroleum president. All they know is that the total blocked sum is way over 20 million US dollars.