Romania’s National Anti-Corruption Directive (DNA) has, following an investigation, decided to take some of the top owners and directors of the Antena Group to court.
According to Media Expres, they include the head of the owners’ family Voiculescu members Dan Voiculescu, his daughter Camelia Voiculescu and Sorin Alexandrescu, the general director of Antena 1. Also on the list are Daniel Matiescu, director of the publishing arm of the Antena Group, Intact Publishing, and Serban Pop, former president of the Romanian Fiscal Authority ANAF.
The latter allegedly provided commercial contracts between RCS and a third company to Antena Group officials, allegedly used to blackmail Ioan Bendei, one of RCS&RDS’s administrators.
The case has drawn a strong response from the local media, siding with or against the Antena Group.
Press reports based on statements by the parties involved in the dispute say that earlier this year Antena Group sought to obtain wider distribution on RCS&RDS’s cable and DTH networks and to impose higher fees per subscriber.
According to the DNA, Sorin Alexandrescu’s blackmailing against Bendei would have concluded with a contract between RCS&RDS and a company named Bodu, controlled by Dimitriu Dragomir, president of the Romanian Professional Football League.
In order not to disclose the contract, Alexandrescu asked Bendei to sign a multi-annual distribution contract worth around €35 millions with Antena Group.
Sorin Alexandrescu has responded in an open letter in which he hints that the anti-corruption body is in fact used by non-named persons to compromise the increasing role of the Antena Group in forming opinions in society.
This is the first time that the DNA has acted against what it says is mass media pressure on the judicial system since the fall of communism in 1989.
