Romania Probes Alleged Ammunition Scheme Linked to Kazakhstan

Romanian anti-corruption authorities have opened an investigation into a large-scale corruption scheme involving arms deals purportedly linked to Kazakhstan, Orda.kz reports.

The case involves current and former Romanian officials, Bulgarian businessmen, and allegedly Kazakh representatives. Octavian Berceanu, former head of the Ecological Guard, and Razvan Mincu, director of the state-owned defense company Romtehnica, shared details with the media.

As Mincu told Europa Libera Romania radio, in early October, a group of businessmen from Bulgaria and Romania approached him with an offer to join a plan to purchase ammunition from Kazakhstan.

Among the Bulgarian businessmen, he named Roman Ivanov Angelov, owner of Sofia Arm Tech.

According to him, the group claimed to have high-level political connections in Romania. Mincu said he agreed to participate only with legal transparency.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Europa FM, Octavian Berceanu said he was approached to act as an intermediary for a bribe to Romanian Defense Minister Ionuț Moșteanu. Berceanu himself was to receive €10 million for his role.

The alleged plan involved buying Russian-style ammunition from Kazakhstan, repainting it to resemble Romanian production, and reselling it to the EU’s defense fund SAFE, with part of it later transferred to Ukraine.

When I talk about Kazakhstan, I don't mean a company from Kazakhstan, but government agencies,
 Europa FM quoted Berceanu as saying.

He did not specify which Kazakh government entities might have been involved in the alleged ammunition scheme.

Original Author: Igor Ulitin