A company headed by Malta’s former ambassador to Romania, Alain Mangion, was at the centre of allegations by Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov that his signature had been falsified for a bank guarantee for €17,500,000.
Two major banks were misled by the falsification of the bank guarantee for a roads contract, and were about to issue the loan, before Borissov notified the director of the Bulgarian National Bank, asking him to take measures.
The contract with Mangion, who is the director of the company Gulf Finance Ltd, was supposedly signed following a decision made by the Sofia municipality in August of last year.
Mangion himself has told MaltaToday it was his company’s verification process that uncovered the scam.
“We arrange various financing projects around the world. Gulf Finance is used for special projects. When we verified the signatures, we uncovered the scam, which was a contract for road rehabilitation.
“Thankfully, apart from the discomfort of still having to find out who organised this scam, we had not yet arranged for the drawdown of the money, so there was no real tangible losses for either us or the banks we deal with.”
Mangion said all the documents looked “amazingly full of detail”, including the official stamps of the municipality.
Mangion resigned as ambassador to Romania at the end of February after his firm Credinvest was found in breach of the Vienna Convention, for participating in a Romanian public tender.
Mangion was implicated in a scandal in Romania after developing commercial activity with the Romanian Ministry of Transport, which is forbidden by the Vienna diplomatic statute.
Romanian newspaper Cotidianul said Mangion’s investment firm Credinvest was participating in a €1.2 billion tender organised by the National Company for Highways for consultancy services in the construction of the Comarnic–Brasow highway.
Mangion has insisted his company won the contract fair and square after submitting a tender.
The former ambassador said he was appointed ambassador specifically because of his contacts in Romania, where Credinvest had been active since 2000. “The business we got was because we have an office in Bucharest with two staff, and we have a local partner…”
He said that he recommended to the government that someone should be appointed to replace him as soon as possible because there were areas Maltese companies could infiltrate, including construction and civil engineering and financial services.

mvella@mediatoday.com.mt