Gabriel “Puiu” Popoviciu — The businessman with a finger in every pizza pie.
There seems to be a pattern for many Romanian businessmen in their run-ins with the justice system. The pattern is obviously complex but it almost always involves shady real estate deals, ties to the Ancien Regime, ties to political movers and shakers and the odd football connection. Gabriel Popoviciu, also known as Puiu, fits this pattern down to a ‘t’.
Puiu Popoviciu is one of the richest men in Romania and the owner of several big, ‘name recognition’ brands. But he started from, if not more humble, then decidedly less capitalist beginnings. Popoviciu married into Romanian communist ‘royalty’, becoming the son-in-law of the last pre-1989 Deputy Prime Minister, Ion Dincă. This, nonetheless, did not stop Popoviciu from leaving the country after the collapse of the old regime for the US. Popoviciu established himself in New Jersey in 1990 — only to triumphantly return in the early 90s to start his business empire. Upon his return, the aspiring entrepreneur started a computer and tech company but, more famously, he was the businessman who brought the first Pizza Hut franchise to Romania. Popoviciu had other firsts in the business world — he was (and still is) the owner of the KFC franchise, has brought and sold the local IKEA franchise, owned the land the sprawling and isthe second largest hotel chain owner in Romania. Since 2000 Popoviciu further made a name for himself as a real estate mogul in the fashionable north of Bucharest where he built a massive mall complex widely considered to be the capital’s fanciest.
On paper Popoviciu seems like the perfect businessman, dealing in everything from computer parts to pizza to real estate, but in reality, like may of Romania’s “Cardboard Billionaires” his main assets are his connections, especially the political ones. Popoviciu has long maintained very friendly relations with decision-makers, both at the central but especially at the local level. He was very close to several politicians, including Traian Băsescu, the charismatic mayor of Bucharest turned two-term president of Romania. Indeed, it was Băsescu who signed off on the transfer of some of the best real estate in Bucharest for less that 1$ per square meter from a state institution to one of Popoviciu’s many companies. At the time, experts estimated the damage this deal caused to the Romanian state at over €1 billion.
Băsescu’s successor to Bucharest city hall was on equally friendly terms with Puiu Popoviciu. Adriean Videanu — businessman, politician and Mayor of Romania’s capital signed off on further development plans on Popoviciu’s newly acquired real estate. Once mayor Videanu had given the green light, the real estate, now connected to the city’s utilities (power, water and sewage grids) blossomed almost overnight into a new luxury development where, who other than then President Băsescu’s youngest daughter MEP Elena Băsescu was one of the first to move in. The US embassy, looking for land to build a more secure facility, was a close second. Faced with such prestigious clients, Popoviciu was more than happy to provide the land at a considerable markup.
Unfortunately the land itself had been bought illegally through a shell company and re-purposed from its initial role as experimental farmland belonging to the University of Agronomy Studies (USAMV). Far from abandoned, as Puiu claimed while repurposing it, it was still in use by agriculture students at the time of sale. But since USAMV was relegated to the role of minority shareholder over its own lands, once friendly city hall mayors agreed to Puiu’s plans, there was no stopping the massive real estate projects that followed.
Needless to say, the land deal that made Popoviciu one of Romania’s wealthiest men took place under shady circumstances. Equally needless to say that, upon investigation by Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate, the so-called “Băneasa” affair found a loss of €600 million in to the state. Puiu was convicted to 9 years in prison, a sentence that was then reduced to 7 in the final judgment issued by the court on August 2nd — a devastating blow for a man who had always benefitted from having friends in high places. But much like one errant billionaire — Sebastian Ghita — Puiu was nowhere to be found after the judge’s gavel fell. Turns out, the businessmen fled the country in June and the Romanian authorities have issued a European Arrest Warrant to his name. Some have speculated that he is in the United States, where his long-time mistress, Dorothy Constantin, has just given birth to the couple’s baby girl.
But there are other possibilities as well. Puiu had been known for spending lavish summers with other Romanian millionaires on the white sandy beaches of Monaco. The so-called Monaco Group included Popoviciu and Videanu but also the late Dan Adamescu, former Prime Minister Călin Popescu Tăriceanu and other rich Romanians with state connections. Tăriceanu is another one of Popoviciu’s long-time tenants and another rumoured to have greatly benefitted from the appropriation of state property by Popoviciu. Popoviciu is also a long time friend, in-law and business partner of Nicolae Badea, another controversial businessman known for shady dealings with the state revolving around real estate, political connections and (family) ties to former communist dignitary Dincă. Badea was for a long time involved in the Romanian football scene, another favourite pastime of Romanian businessmen, as the chairman of the board for Dinamo Bucharest.
It is almost funny how stereotypical of a Romanian businessman the career of Puiu Popoviciu seems to be. Popoviciu seems a TV sitcom away from becoming the embodiment of Romanian crony capitalism. But make no mistake — 600 million euros in losses suffered by the Romanian state should to take the fun out of any situation.
