Sergiu Băhăian alias Vasile Negrila is a Romanian businessman, convicted
fraudster
In law, fraud is intentional deception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compen ...
, and Romanian prosecutors allege, the leader of a
criminal organization
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally tho ...
responsible for the killing of at least four people.
Background
Băhăian became notable in the 1990s when he scammed over 5000 people with
bad check
Dishonoured cheques (also spelled check) are cheques that a bank on which is drawn declines to pay (“honour”). There are a number of reasons why a bank would refuse to honour a cheque, with non-sufficient funds (NSF) being the most common one ...
s though his company ''Sabina Product'', which is considered one of the biggest financial scandals in Romania during that decade.
[ The damages were over 7 billion lei. In 1995 Băhăian fled to ]Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...
together with three accomplices, but he was caught, extradited, and sentenced to five years in jail in 1998. He was released in 2002. Afterward, Băhăian was nicknamed "the prince of bad check
Dishonoured cheques (also spelled check) are cheques that a bank on which is drawn declines to pay (“honour”). There are a number of reasons why a bank would refuse to honour a cheque, with non-sufficient funds (NSF) being the most common one ...
s". According to Realitatea TV
Realitatea TV (, meaning "The Reality TV") is the former name of the Romanian news television channel Realitatea Plus. The channel began broadcasting in 2001 as a general-profile television and became the first Romanian news television in 2002. ...
news portal, in 1998 he defrauded a German business partner of 130,000 marks and 4,000 dollars, but was released soon after his arrest.[ He was investigated again in 2006 for alleged damages of 30 billion lei (400,000 ]euro
The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
s), which were created by establishing the company Absolut Uniprix SRL under a fake identity (Constantin Tudorache) and using it to buy seven cars (four Renault Megane
Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of ...
, one Renault Clio
The Renault Clio () is a supermini car ( B-segment), produced by French automobile manufacturer Renault. It was launched in 1990, and entered its fifth generation in 2019. The Clio has had substantial critical and commercial success, being con ...
and two Volkswagen Polo
The Volkswagen Polo is a supermini car ( B-segment) produced by the German car manufacturer Volkswagen since 1975. It is sold in Europe and other markets worldwide in hatchback, saloon, and estate variants throughout its production run.
History ...
) and various construction materials.
According to the newspaper Adevărul
''Adevărul'' (; meaning "The Truth", formerly spelled ''Adevĕrul'') is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in Iași, in 1871, and reestablished in 1888, in Bucharest, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published du ...
, in 2009 Băhăian bought the football club Gloria Buzău through a front company
A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy gro ...
that had 200 lei worth of asset
In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that ca ...
s. Although he appeared at a few games, Băhăian avoided being officially identified as the owner of the club.[
On 16 January 2010, Băhăian was arrested by the Romanian organized-crime police after a car chase through the center of ]Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north ...
. Cornered, Băhăian did not surrender until police opened fire on his car, which had armored windows. One police officer suffered a fractured arm during the arrest.[ Simultaneously with Băhăian's arrest, four of his collaborators were arrested in Bucharest, ]Constanța
Constanța (, ; ; rup, Custantsa; bg, Кюстенджа, Kyustendzha, or bg, Констанца, Konstantsa, label=none; el, Κωνστάντζα, Kōnstántza, or el, Κωνστάντια, Kōnstántia, label=none; tr, Köstence), histo ...
, and Ialomița, in an operation that involved 60 police officers.[
Băhăian was charged with ordering the killing of four people in " mafioso style" between 2006 and 2008, in a case that Romania's chief prosecutor ]Laura Codruța Kövesi
Laura Codruța Kövesi (; ; born 15 May 1973) is the first European Chief Prosecutor and the former chief prosecutor of Romania's National Anticorruption Directorate ( ro, Direcția Națională Anticorupție - DNA, links=no), a position she hel ...
declared to be "unprecedented". According to the prosecution, the victims, all former business associates of Băhăian, were forced to swallow diazepam
Diazepam, first marketed as Valium, is a medicine of the benzodiazepine family that acts as an anxiolytic. It is commonly used to treat a range of conditions, including anxiety, seizures, alcohol withdrawal syndrome, muscle spasms, insomnia, ...
and alcohol, and were later buried alive or thrown in the Danube – Black Sea Canal
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
or the Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , ...
river. Two of the victims were found in the Cerchezu
Cerchezu is a commune in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania.
The commune includes two villages:
* Cerchezu (historical name: ''Cerchezchioi'', tr, Çerkezköy, german: Tscherkess), named after the Circassian minority that settled the ...
commune, buried at a depth of 2.5 metres under a layer of rocks and concrete. The (DIICOT) suspects that there may be other victims.[
According to the prosecution, Băhăian recruited lonely and poor people, created front companies in their names, and then asked them to buy various merchandise and cars with bad checks or ]promissory note
A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...
s. Over 40 companies were created for this purpose. The balance sheet
In financial accounting, a balance sheet (also known as statement of financial position or statement of financial condition) is a summary of the financial balances of an individual or organization, whether it be a sole proprietorship, a busine ...
s of these companies were usually cooked.[ When these accomplices, who normally received less than 0.1% of the profits, started to make demands, they were eliminated by two of Băhăian's lieutenants, Valentin Șlepac and Adrian Grigoraș.][ The monetary damages have been estimated to be at least 800,000 ]euro
The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
s by Adevărul newspaper,[ or 2 million euros by the ]Gândul
''Gândul'' (, "The Thought") is a Romanian online newspaper published in Bucharest. It was founded in May 2005 by Mircea Dinescu, who used to write a daily editorial called "Vorba lu' Dinescu", and Cristian Tudor Popescu
Cristian Tudor Popes ...
newspaper and Mediafax
Mediafax ({{IPA-ro, ˌmedi.aˈfaks) is a Romanian media company headquartered in Bucharest and founded in 1991. It is a part of the MediaPro Group and its primary line of business is a news and photography service. The company's ''Mediafax Busine ...
news agency.
At the time of his 2010 arrest, Sergiu Băhăian had 1600 friends on Facebook.
In April 2013, the High Court of Cassation and Justice
The High Court of Cassation and Justice ( ro, Înalta Curte de Casație și Justiție) is Romania's supreme court, and the court of last resort. It is the equivalent of France's Cour de Cassation and serves a similar function to other courts of ...
rejected his appeal, upholding the sentence to 26 years in prison for murder, organized crime and fraud. The appeals of his two main accomplices, Valentin Șlepac and Adrian Grigoraș were not considered because they had already died in jail; they had been sentenced to life and respectively 22 years. Three more of Băhăian's accomplices, Edward Marian Mărculescu, Dan Liviu Iovan and George Florian Oprea, also saw their sentences upheld to 13 and a half years, 13 years, and respectively 5 years in prison.
References
External links
Sergiu Băhăian on Facebook
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahaian, Sergiu
Living people
Romanian businesspeople
Romanian people convicted of murder
Romanian white-collar criminals
Romanian gangsters
Year of birth missing (living people)