Tiriac's statements are included in a press release issued Thursday and sent to Mediafax due to the "speculations" in the media involving his name, "in the context of the contractual relations between the Romanian state and the EADS corporation."
"There is no connection between Ion Tiriac and the EADS contract with the Romanian state. Artificial speculations are made on my friendship and business relations to create the illusion of a connection. I have never had any personal or business interest, direct or indirect , I have not even participated in any activity, meeting or discussion on this topic, " Tiriac said.
He added: "In this context, as Romanian and as a friend, I apologize to His Excellency, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, for having his name mixed in this story with a Balkan conspiracy flavor and I thank him once again for his open, direct and admirable support that he provided Romania with upon its accession into the European Union ".
An article by Vlad Georgescu , recently published in the online German edition of the Huffington Post reports that the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) of Romania is investigating senior members of the government and the intelligence service for having allegedly charged bribes worth more than 60 million euros to facilitate for EADS in 2005, a contract for over 743 million euros with the authorities in Bucharest.
In part, the money originate from EU funds. In addition to the EADS Deutschland GmbH, Fujitsu Siemens Computers and Microsoft, in this business there appear also the names of Gerhard Schroeder, Bodo Hombach, Ion Tiriac and Klaus Mangold, and that of the candidate for the presidency of Romania , Elena Udrea, the author of the article argues.