Ploiești

Prime Minister Victor Ponta accused the 'media lynching' of his mother and sister; he wrote on his social media page that the only reason was to hurt him politically.

Photo credit: (c) Angelo BREZOIANU / AGERPRES PHOTO

The Prime Minister's brother-in-law Iulian Hertanu is supposedly being investigated on suspicions of having colluded with others to set up a bid rigging ring that acted to illegally win the contract for the expansion of the Comarnic city sewerage network, judicial sources told AGERPRES on Tuesday.

Photo credit: (c) Cristian NISTOR / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Andrey Bogdanov, Petrotel Lukoil's chief executive, has been charged with tax evasion and money laundering worth an estimated EUR 230 M.

Bogdanov, CEO of the Romanian-based refinery, is currently under a recognizance order and cannot leave the country, Russian business website RBC Daily reports.

Prosecutors of the Organised Crime and Terrorism Investigation Directorate (DIICOT) are conducting today several searches of addresses in the counties of Constanta, Prahova, Buzau, Salaj, Giurgiu, Braila and Bucharest City in a case of tax evasion and money laundering. The searches also regard managers of the Petrolul Ploiesti football club.

AGERPRES special correspondent Daniel Florea reports: Prime Minister Victor Ponta, while paying an official visit to the Republic of Moldova, said that he had been officially informed on Friday morning about the fact that the activity in Petrotel refinery of Ploiesti had been resumed and said this was a good thing both for Bucharest and for Chisinau.

President Traian Basescu said on Thursday that the Government must be prepared to take over the refinery in Ploiesti, unless Lukoil resumes production on Friday.

Romanian authorities have ordered the closure of Lukoil's Petrotel refinery in Ploiesti, Romania.

Oleg Malginov, Russia's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Romania, announced that the oil refinery had been closed sue to an investigation for tax evasion and money laundering.