On April 10 of this year, the Kentron and Nork-Marash Court of First Instance showed unprecedented leniency towards Rumanian citizen Marian Oliver Raduca, who was found guilty of “organized theft of particularly large sums.”

He and his accomplices were charged with using fake ATM cards and defrauding several Armenian banks out of thousands of dollars.

The court sentenced the accused Raduca to a mere two years and didn’t demand the recapture of said sums. According to the RoA Criminal Code, the minimum sentence for such a crime is four years.

Judge Gagik Avetisyan found that there were no insinuating circumstances to hand down a heavier sentence. On the contrary, Judge Avetisyan found in favor of a lighter sentence, arguing that the accused has expressed remorse for his actions, had assisted law enforcement in the prosecution of the case and, most importantly, did not have a criminal record prior to this.

Raduca gets light sentence despite criminal record

However, what the court failed to take into account is the letter addressed to General-Major S. Melkonyan, head of the Counter-Intelligence Division of the RoA National Security Agency, by the Interpol National Central Bureau (INCB), according to which – based on information the INCB has gathered in Rumania, said Marian Oliver Raduca is known to head an organized crime syndicate and is know top have employed fake ATM’s cards in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Israel, Morocco and France. He has been able to steal large sums of money and thus purchase property, expensive automobiles and open extensive bank accounts.

The Interpol Bureau in Great Britain reports that Raduca is included in the criminal registry and that he has been convicted of fraud twice.

It is difficult to believe that such an international organization as Interpol would disseminate unverified information. However, it appears that the investigative arm of the RoA National Security Service and the courts chose to disregard this information provided by Interpol. One can only make assumptions as to why.

“I have information that Oliver Raduca will soon be released,” says Public Defender Anjela Hobosyan, the lawyer for Stangaciu Cornel Constantin, another Rumanian convicted along with Raduca in the credit card fraud case in Armenia. She believes that the reason why the court showed leniency towards Raduca was simply because he cooperated with Armenian law enforcement and testified against her client, Constantin, stating that he was the actual ringleader of the criminal gang, when in fact it was “Raduca who pulled the strings”.

3 Rumanians and one Latvian arrested

“Hetq” has covered some of the particulars of the case in the 1st edition of its recently launched newspaper (June 1-7, 2009). We should remind readers that on August 27, 2008, the RoA National Security Service arrested three Rumanians and one Latvian of defrauding several bank ATM’s in Armenia out of 80 million AMD by using fake cards. (Those arrested were 3 Rumanians – Oliver Raduca, Daniel Fereru, and Constantin Haji – and one Latvian – Margarita Sprudzane)

A search of the hotel rooms of the four arrested individuals turned up 160 fake ATM cards and a large amount of foreign currency. It turns out the gang gained access to customer accounts in the British Barclay’s Bank. The pre-trial investigative body sent the cases of Haji-Sprudzane and Raduca-Fereru separately to the courts. All four individuals pleaded guilty and requested expedited trials.

On February 18, 2009, Judge K. Ghazaryan of the Kentron and Nork-Marash Court of First Instance sentenced Margarita Sprudzane to a 300,000 fine for not reporting the illegal activities of the group to the authorities. She was released immediately after her sentence was read out. The same judge sentenced Constantin Haji to 4 years imprisonment for “the theft of large amounts of cash by an organized group”. None of his property was seized as repayment. Two months later, Judge Gagik Avetisyan sentenced Raduca to 2 years and Fereru to 6 years and the seizure of all his property. The latter was charged with “laundering large amounts of stolen cash”

Both Haji and Fereru appealed their sentences. On May 22 of this year the Armenian Court of Appeals found in Haji’s favor and lessened his sentence to 2 years of conditional imprisonment and then set him free in the court. On June 16, the Appeals Court upheld the sentence meted out to Fereru.

Public Defender Anjela Hobosyan states, “The pre-trial investigative body waited until the sentences of these four individuals went into effect and only then sent the case of my client Stangaciu Cornel to the court with a presumption of guilt based on those sentences. Otherwise, the case would have gone differently.”

Stangaciu Cornel, head of criminal gang, turns himself in

The attorney details that on August 29, two days after the arrest of Raduca and Fereru, Cornel was driven to the investigation unit in a car belonging to the Rumanian embassy and confessed to the fact that he had stolen cash from ATM’s in Goris and Yerevan by using fake cards and that he tried to do the same in the town of Sevan but wasn’t successful. “He said that he was ready to face the consequences for his actions and to make restitution of the amount he had stolen – 600,000 AMD. However, both Raduca and Fereru told police that it was Cornel who was the mastermind of the operation; supervising not only them but those in the gang who had already left Armenia,” said attorney Hobosyan.

In spite of all this, there were no “tete-a-tete” between these two individuals and Cornel. “There was practically no examination process regarding Cornel. In court, he testified that National Security Service Senior Examiner, Artyom Grigoryan, called him and that the two discussed things. Later, the examiner said, ‘Write down that you refuse to testify. I’ll interrogate you in 1-2 weeks.’ He wrote it all down but was never interrogated. Cornel even petitioned the Rumanian Embassy and they made a request to the RoA Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the examining body mediates in his interrogation. But, this too was for naught,” says the attorney.

Cornel’s case was heard in the Kentron and Nork-Marash District Court. During the trial both Raduca and Fereru withdrew their incriminatory pre-trial testimony against Cornel. “Raduca said he offered the incriminatory testimony so that his pre-trial examination would pass more quickly and without incident. Fereru went so far as to say that he testified as he did under pressure for Raduca. Fereru said that they shared the same cell and that Raduca threatened him – if you don’t testify against Cornel I’ll carve your eyes out with a knife,” recounts the attorney. Neither Prosecutor Hovsep Sargsyan nor Judge Mnatsakan Martirosyan paid particular attention to any of this.

“Daniel Fereru also said that law enforcement also apprehended Adi Ioan Blaga but that he was let go after paying a bribe. Blaga left Armenia on August 25 and that it was he who transferred the largest amounts of stolen cash out of the country. The court was neither interested in any of this as well,” recounts attorney Hobosyan.

Judge Martirosyan concluded that the reason for the contradictions in the testimony of Fereru and Raduca in court and during the pre-trial examination was to assist Cornel in beating the rap. On October 12, the court sentenced Cornel to 12 years imprisonment and the seizure of property not to exceed 64,142,000 AMD. The judge also decided to appropriate 25,457,000 of this as compensation to the following banks – HSBC Armenia, ArtsakhBank, AgbaCredit Agricole, and VTB.

“If they are only to accept pre-trial testimony as a basis, then why the need to send the case to trial?” asks attorney Hobosyan in amazement, noting that they will definitely appeal the sentence

P.S. According to a bulletin sent by the Rumanian Interpol Office, Cornel Stangaciu is also known as the head of a criminal gang and specializes in such criminal activities.

To be continued