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IMPACT OF STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS IN CORRUPTION CASES AFFECTING EU FINANCIAL INTERESTS |
PAG.19
CHANGE IN THE LEGAL CLASSIFICATION OF A CRIME AFTER SEVEN YEARS,
FOLLOWED BY A CONVICTION? CHECKED. CASE STATUTE BARRED? CHECKED (ROMANIA)
IS IT POSSIBLE TO STOP DILATORY TACTICS? THE BPP CASE (PORTUGAL)
S.V., the president of Jiu Valley Miner Unions League and of the Confederation of Mining Unions in
Romania other than a member of Parliament from 2000 to 2004, was indicted in May 2006 for abuse
of authority to obtain money, goods or other undue advantages, for continuous forgery under private
signature and continuous abuse of office. The trial was delayed on the account of over forty terms,
because of countless exceptions raised by the defendant until February 2010, when the accused was
sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and about 50,000 euro in damages. On appeal before the Bu-
charest Court of Appeal, the Court held on 22 April 2011 that the change in the legal classification of the
crime had closed the criminal proceedings and that the case had become statute barred.
The Banco Privado Português case refers to a number of financial misdemeanour proceedings where
the defendant, João Rendeiro, and other administrators of the bank were sentenced to pay, in 2014,
total eleven million euro to the financial regulators (the Bank of Portugal and the Portuguese Securities
Market Commission), due to a large number of violations of the Law on Securities.
These crimes were close to becoming statute barred (November 2016), after which the accused bank
administrators could have reprised their administrating roles in financial institutions. The only way to
avoid the expiry of the limitation period was to have the Bank of Portugal impose sanctions and the
CMVM decision become final. The main defendant and the remaining administrators thus raised all
types of nullities and unconstitutionalities.
In face of all these dilatory tactics, the court decided to put an end to the succession of complaints
and new arguments, holding that: “It is evident that the defendant, through the number of complaints
lodged, and knowing that this procedure does not admit an appeal to the Supreme Court, and being
unsatisfied with this Court’s decision, will do everything he can to avoid this decision becoming final”.
This court decision is a good, but rare, example of using civil procedure mechanisms to stop abusive
delays by defendants.
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Rompetrul Group is a prominent Romanian oil and gas company.
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The prosecutors maintain that, in the period September 1999 — November 2001, he repeatedly appropriated the
amount of 85 million USD from the EPSA Agreements and owed to the state budget and which he dealt in the interest of
Rompetrol International Ltd and The Rompetrol Group BVB Netherlands.