Comtim in the house of a Jew

 

by Bianca Toma 

published Tuesday, February 11th, 2003 in Evenimentul Zilei

 

The nephew of a Jew who built a house in Timisoara in the 30s, house nationalized by the Communist government which became 25 years ago the headquarter of the company COMTIM, has requested in a lawsuit the restitution of the house which was the property of his grandfather, Eugen Klein.  His nephew, Eugen Szekely (incorrectly spelled in the original text), now is established in Canada and had commenced, four years ago the procedure for the restitution of the house.  In the same time interval COMTIM, as a result of the bankruptcy was in a liquidation process, thus the heir of the first owner of the headquarters’ of the meat-processing corporation made the request to the liquidator, PricewaterhouseCoopers Romania (PwC).  He was offered compensation, without an explicit amount.  Eventually, through his representatives, the liquidator had signaled that the bankruptcy status of the company would take precedence over the Communist nationalization act.  Eugen Szekely maintains that the liquidator does not comply with the Romanian laws governing the restitution of the abusive confiscated property and has logged a complaint with the directors of PwC US and UK, which decided to investigate the Romanian case. 

 

The previously Klein House built 80 years ago

 

Eugen Syekelz (another misspelling of my name – it happens to me also) tells that his grandfather, Eugen Klein, has built, in 1927, on a piece of land purchased in Timisoara a house, which, as outlined in the contract, would turn into a residence for his family, a store and a small business office.  “Ten years later, during the WWII, the situation has worsened and for my grandfather, as a Jew the things became even worse.   He managed to escape the Holocaust; he went with the Russian army, to return in 1945 in the Romania in the Communist era.  In 1950, in order to create the “collective property”, all the houses owned by the so called “enemies of the people” became the state property” says Szekely.  The same thing happened with the small business of the Klein family, who were thrown into a one room apartment in the city.  The house built in 1927 became initially the headquarter of a regional organization and eventually became the head office for the largest western pigs farm cooperative, Comtim.  “In 1999, COMTIM became bankrupt, PwC being named as the liquidator and it tried to put out the house for sale, although the company did not own the title deed.  Then we initiated a lawsuit for the rectification of the title deed, which was suspended at the apparition of the law 10/2001 dealing with the restitution of the houses abusively confiscated by the communists” said Klein’s nephew.

 

The petty Romanian extortions

 

After the action was suspended, in 2001, Eugen Szekely, contacted Radu Bufan, the PwC consultant, the company which is in charge of the liquidation of COMTIM.  “Bufanu told me his solution.  PwC would sell the house, and I would get part of the monies.  I told him then that I cannot accept his solution and that I want the restitution of the house as mandated by the law.  Bufanu told me that I am not open to negotiation and if he wants, he could stall the lawsuit at the Supreme Court and could even sell the judicial rights to the house.  Practically, he denied me any possibility of recuperating the house expressing his intent to abuse of PwC’s resources to force me into accepting a deal that is illegal and immoral”, says Szekely.  He requested then from the liquidator the restitution of the house.  PwC, through Emilian Radu, the director of the liquidation department, answered that the house contains the archives, the liquidation activity is very complex and only 40% completed, and at the date of the nationalization the house has been structurally modified.  At the same time, he is offered compensation without amount.

The lawyer of Mr. Szekely replied to PwC that he does not agree with the reasons of the refusal and added that a bankrupt company cannot make compensation offers, as long, as the bankruptcy was triggered by lack of funds.

 

Bufanu makes good on his threat

 

However last year in November, the Judge overseeing the liquidation accepts the proposal of the Comtim’s liquidator to sell five assets of the company including the litigious rights to the Comtin’s headquarters, as Radu Bufanu had threaten the owner to do.  “If PwC refused the restitution of the house invoking the necessity to continue the liquidation of Comtim in the house, how can they be in sell negotiation with another firm for the rights to the house.  At that moment I sent notification letters relative to the illegality of this transaction.  I communicated with the president of PwC UK notifying him about the illegal intent of PwC Romania.  The transaction was stopped”, says the beneficiary of the house.  Radu Bufan confirms that initially he published such an advertisement, but later it was retracted in order to avoid any problems on this issue.  Through a lawyer in England, Eugen Szekely contacted about this case the management of PwC from the US and UK.  He received a confirmation that an independent investigator will analyze this month the case of Szekely against PwC Romania.

 

 

Observation

The article has a large picture of the house a few days before the publishing date and a smaller showing the house in 1930.

On the large picture it says – “the house that holds the offices of the bankrupt company has barely changed since 1930 (see insert)”

 

 

 

The Romanian version of the article can be seen online or as a scanned version.

 

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