The Romanian General Prosecutor’s Office and the Directorate for the Investigation of Economic Crime conducted searches at companies part of the Tinmar group on Thursday, November 6, Economedia.ro reported. The company, one of the largest energy traders in the country, is allegedly accused of fraud and money laundering through the artificial manipulation of energy prices.
Searches targeted four companies within the Tinmar group: Tinmar Energy, Lord Energy, Solprim, and Eye Mall, as well as at the administrators of these firms, according to media reports. The companies in the group are accused of trading energy among themselves in order to artificially increase their price and claim higher reimbursements from the state under the price cap-compensation scheme.
However, according to Profit.ro, Tinmar Group said that the intra-group electricity transactions suspected by the General Prosecutor’s Office of having harmed the state budget, by allegedly inflating the average wholesale purchase price reimbursed by authorities during the period of capped final prices billed to customers, were thoroughly reviewed by the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), which found no fault or irregularity on the part of the group’s companies.
In February 2024, ANRE imposed a record fine of over EUR 200 million on four energy traders who made record profits in the context of the energy crisis, including the Tinmar group. The suppliers challenged the fines in court.
Nevertheless, companies in the Tinmar group are still frequently involved in large contracts with the state, winning electricity supply agreements for public institutions over the years.
In April this year, a company within the group won a contract worth nearly EUR 13 million for the supply of electricity needed to power Bucharest’s public lighting system for one year. Two years ago, Tinmar won a framework agreement (subscription-type) worth over EUR 4 million for supplying electricity to the Ministry of Finance for a period of two years.
The company even signed a contract with the tax agency ANAF for one year. Many more contracts with state authorities followed.
Augustin Oancea, the owner of Tinmar group, is ranked 21st in the Forbes 500 list of the richest Romanians, with a fortune estimated at RON 1.6 billion, or EUR 310 million.
(Photo source: Madamlead | Dreamstime.com)
Leave a Reply