The house that my grandfather built became the property of the state through the act of nationalization in 1950. As such, it was administered until 1968 by Timisoara’s town hall when it was rented for ten years, free of rent to the “Regional Union of Agricultural Cooperatives of Banat”. In 1979, the administration of the building was given to a new tenant, again free of rent, the newly built pig farm complex, COMTIM. The new tenant partitioned the ground floor to suit its needs for more office space and added a new stairway, as it needed to segregate the occidental business partners from the Romanian proletarians. These are the changes to the house that will be referred to later.

The “Romanian revolution” of 1989 replaced the tyrannical regime of Nicolae Ceausescu with a new wave of discontent Communists. The change was mainly in their image as they no longer called themselves Communists but Socialists or Democrats; however their beliefs remained the same. Faced with the specter of isolation within Europe, the new Government delayed promoting much needed economical reforms in an attempt to appease the masses and maintain its populist image. The reforms and laws that were passed were half-hearted, with catastrophic results for everyone.

COMTIM, still a tenant in my grandfather’s house, was now privatized with the main shareholder the Romanian state! The mismanagement of the company continued and resulted in a bankruptcy. The liquidator of the COMTIM HOLDING S.A. was named PriceWaterhouseCoopers Romania.

Read on…The Trial

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