PricewaterhouseCoopers, as the liquidator of COMTIM,
has knowingly broken the Romanian Law 10/2001 and the HG. 498/2003,
refusing the restitution of a house that was nationalized through an illegal
act of the Communist regime in 1950.
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Romania, in a response to my legal request for restitution as mandated by the Romanian law, has
used illegal and false arguments
claiming the impossibility of restitution.
At the same time, the signatory of the previous document, Mr. Emilian
Radu, attempted to enter into a transaction, in the name of
PricewaterhouseCoopers Romania, as the
liquidator of the bankrupt COMTIM, through which it have sold
the “litigious rights” to the house to
Agrotorvis SRL!
As the Romanian liquidation law mandates the
publication of any transactions in the local newspapers, I
notified immediately PricewaterhouseCoopers UK about the
illegality of the transaction. I have received no official communication
from PricewaterhouseCoopers about the annulment of this illegal transaction;
however Mr. Scrieciu, the lawyer of COMTIM, has declared in
Court that this transaction will not take place.
Recently I came in possession of a contract through
which the same
Mr. Emilian Radu,
the director of PwC Romania Business Recover Services, sold a month after I
notified PricewaterhouseCoopers UK, the
“litigious rights” to the house for
1/10th of its value to Agrotorvis SRL as it had
initially intended to do! In order
to keep this transaction hidden, Mr. Emilian Radu in the name of
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the liquidator of COMTIM, has entered this contract
under private signature with the manager of Agrotorvis SRL.
Taking into consideration all the above,
PricewaterhouseCoopers Romania has broken its
mandate as the liquidator of COMTIM, knowingly issuing false arguments,
concealing acts and documents involving its breach of legal duty. In Romania these acts
amount to fraud which is punishable under the Romanian law.
My attempts to make PricewaterhouseCoopers’ offices
in the US and UK aware of this situation were dismissed on two different occasions by
Mr.
Anthony Vernon of the General Counsel with blank statements concluding that
the Romanian office has acted at all times professionally and according to the
law. It has to be mentioned, that in the first investigation, the same Mr. Vernon has not even bother to look into my
accusations and the proof that I have submitted, being content to send me the
official position of the Romanian office in English, and only after I have
contacted
Mr. Samuel DiPiazza Jr., Ms. Barbara Kipp and Mr.
Kieran Poynter.
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ conclusion to the second
investigation was voided of arguments disputing any of my accusations of
illegalities committed by the Romanian office in this case and was in line with
the conclusion of the first investigation stating that PwC has found no sign of
illegalities or ethical misconduct.
Answering to my request for a detailed conclusion that would take into
account my accusations and address them appropriately, the
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Ethics Leader, Mrs. Barbara outlined PwC's self-policing procedure as follows: “
it is not our policy to share the details
of any investigations with complainants. I realize that you may have
questions about these details; however, we are considering the matter closed.”
Contrary to the opinion of Mrs. Kipp,
I do not intend to consider this matter close and I will pursue in my efforts
to make this blatant fraud and its cover-up known to the public and to the
Romanian authorities until the only just and legal solution has been reached
(the restitution of the house that was built by my grandfather) and the
offender are brought to justice.
Here is the
text of the correspondence sent to PricewaterhouseCoopers Global CEO, Mr. Samuel DiPiazza Jr. pointing out that
more than two years since I raised the subject of their Romanian office’s illegal actions, the central offices in the UK and US have failed to deal internally with the problem, issuing uncorroborated blank statements of professional conduct in support of their Romanian colleagues. Following the disinterest of PricewaterhouseCoopers I inform Mr. Di Piazza about my intent to inform the Romanian authorities.
I sent copies of this letter to the following PricewaterhouseCoopers Partners that took part in the previous two investigations in the Romanian office’s activities:
Mr. Kieran Poynter – PwC UK Senior Partner, Mr. Larry Keeshan – Global General Counsel, Mrs. Barbara Kipp – Global Ethics Counsel and Mr. Anthony Vernon from the Office of the General Counsel.
Eugen Szekely
Ottawa, Canada
Just in –
Prosecutors of the Timisoara Court have opened a criminal investigation, registered with the number 147/P/2003, having as object the liquidation of COMTIM. Some of the decision of the Syndic Judge, Rodica Marghescu, will be analyzed for their compliance with the Romanian law. The liquidation of COMTIM and the illegal actions that took place in it, has received a wide coverage from the Romanian press (article in Romanian
here), confirming the accusations that I exposed for the past year on this web page.
October 13th, 2003 I sent a communication by fax addressed to Mr. DiPiazza Jr. containing the latest inquiries initiated by the Romanian prosecutors in the accusations of illegal actions taken in the COMTIM's liquidation procedure. In order to avoid any eventual claim of ignorance about the developments in Romania from the PwC US and UK offices I sent a copy of my letter to Mr. DiPiazza Jr. to the Senior Partners that have dealt with this problem in the past.
To this date, for PricewaterhouseCoopers, COMTIM’s liquidation remains a reference case, a testimony of their professional and ethical conduct!
To the memory of my grandfather
Eugen Klein
Disclaimer
This
is not an official page for PricewaterhouseCoopers Romania but rather about their attempt
to defraud us from the restitution of my grandfather’s nationalized house
This case in the International
Press
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Latest news in this case are
posted here – updated on Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Mr. Vernon, in his
second attempt, finds nothing wrong or unethical about PwC Romania’s use of
intimidation, blackmail and lies in this case.
His conclusion is endorsed by Ms. Barbara Kipp, PwC’s
Global Ethics Leader!
Learning from his past mistakes, Mr. Vernon provides no arguments to his
conclusion of propriety in the actions taken by PwC Romania and places the
responsibility of the findings on an “independent” (not independent of PwC, but
rather independent of me) reviewer. Of
course, as in the first investigation, this reviewer at not time has attempted
to contact me in order to compare my statements against those of PwC Romania, but rather one-sidedly took the word of those that have wronged
against mine. Mr. Vernon’s second
conclusion can be seen here and it is
followed by my detailed analysis that I have
forwarded to Ms. Kipp as Mr. Vernon expressed his wish not to be
contacted any further in this matter.
Although, I have forwarded my analysis to Ms. Kipp,
together with other numerous substantiating evidence that were ignored by Mr.
Vernon and the “independent” reviewer, she has decided not to look into the
matter any further being completely
satisfied that my complaints have been treated seriously and investigated
properly. Ms. Kipp’s
conclusion can be seen here.
Of interest – against the message
of increased ethics boasted by PwC on their Web site and in the press please
consider the following remark by Ms. Kipp
which is related to an investigation led by PwC into improprieties perpetuated
by PwC!
“It is not our policy to
share the details of any investigations with complainants. I realize
that you may have questions about these details; however, we are considering
the matter closed.”
My question: What is PwC trying to hide?
Answer: A FRAUD!
List of Contents
- the introduction,
- the story of Eugen Klein,
- the story of the house he built,
- the Trial,
- respect
for the law?
- chronology
of recent events (here you can find updates on this
Kafkaesque ordeal)
- my
complains against PwC Romania,
- important
reference documents,
- useful links
- PricewaterhouseCoopers Ethics Home,
please read the Code of Conduct, a far cry from the situation in Romania
- Szekely vs.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Romania, downloadable
Word document
- pictures of the house, pictures of the house in
1930 and today.
- Global 2001 Corruption Perception Index ,
pertinent for the corruption background in Romania
- The Regional Corruption Report 2001 for Eastern Europe
, as above
- A fable, a quick way of understanding
what is going on
- The conclusion of a “professional
investigation”
by an UK Attorney from PwC on PwC’s Romania illegal and un-ethical actions. It is followed by my reply to Mr.
Vernon, an analysis of the blatant omissions of his investigation.
- Coverage of this
case was initiated in the third most popular Romanian
national newspaper – Evenimentul Zilei
on Tuesday February 11th, 2003. You can
see the English
translation here.
- text of the correspondence sent to PricewaterhouseCoopers Global CEO, Mr. Samuel DiPiazza Jr.
- DSCLex - A reference Romanian Law site (in Romanian)
- Indaco - A second reference Romanian law site (in Romanian)
or go on to Eugen Klein’s story