
In Albania they live on the minimum wage, but in Romania they are the owners of dozens of phantom or bankrupt companies which are suspected of defrauding the Romanian state by benefiting from millions of eruos through VAT.
Romanian media , investigating this scandal, has arrived in Lezha, where some of the owners of the companies registered in Romania are located.
Residents either don't know anything, or are afraid to speak. However, in both cases, it seems clear that they were manipulated by other people, who are also the real beneficiaries, to cover their tracks.
In countless documents of fictitious companies, the team of the Romanian show managed to discover at least 26 Albanian citizens who turn out to be owners. They have become owners and administrators of companies with a dubious history in Romania. Some are grouped in pairs in the same company, to make the movement more reliable.
More than 60 companies were found in the name of these Albanians, and the way this group works shows that there are many more companies. The Romanian journalist decides to head towards Lezha, where it turns out that the largest number of Albanians with companies in Romania is located.
He arrives in Kallmet i Madh, where he meets Zefin, one of the owners of the Romanian company.
"I am from a Romanian television, from the show "Romania, I love you"
– Have you ever been to Romania?
- I was once in Bucharest.
-When?
– 7-8 years ago
– Have you bought any companies?
– I did nothing but be a tourist, I stayed at the Rin Grand Hotel.
- How many people were you?
- Two friends. Me and someone else.
– The guy in front of us is an auto mechanic. In Albania. In Romania he is a big businessman.
- Do you know that you have 9 companies in Romania?
- Me? I don't have a company in Romania, my friend.
Nine companies. And everyone has problems there."
The journalist says that Zefi is inside the scheme, he knows what happened, or how his name was used, but he is afraid to tell.
"It seems clear that Zefi is afraid to tell us how he ended up in Romania. In April 2012, together with another Albanian from Lezha, Briken Gazzuli, they became owners of companies with debts to other companies, or involved in cases involving tax crimes of several million Lek. Hilman Grup, for example, has unpaid obligations to the state of several million and also appeared in a DNA file from 2013 for an organized criminal group.
Zefi knows what happened. If he had been the beneficiary of those companies, Zef should have been a millionaire by now", says the Romanian journalist.
The journalist further says that the scheme of fraud with VAT, and companies with debts was made with the involvement of high Romanian officials.
"The municipality of Gornet in Prahova could be twinned with Lezha in Albania. At least from a business point of view. Some citizens from here have set up companies in Bucharest and Ilfov, to give to the Albanians.
The company FRM TRANS was transferred to Zefi and his Albanian friend by Nicolae-Vasile Laurentiu from Gornet i Prahova.
He was an agent of some Albanians to represent them in other transactions. He also founded Promt Trade in October 2011, and in April 2012 transferred it to Albanians.
"Iulică" is the president of the Prahova District Council, Iulian Dumitrescu. Three years ago I presented to you on the show "Romania, I love you" the mechanism by which a group of companies won contract after contract with public money in Călăraşi County. Tens of millions of euros entered the pockets of Dumitrescu's relatives.
His signatures appear on contracts including 2009. The companies he was associated with won construction works in Kalarashi worth over 50 million euros, from the PNDL1 program alone. After Dumitrescu becomes a senator, the former colleague sells the companies of the Albanians of Lezha. Many of the companies with the name of Albanians are related to the family of the chairman of the District Council of Prahova", concludes the Romanian investigative show./ Stirileprotv