“Minister of Health, Daniela Bartos investigated for international adoptions”
Evenimentul Zilei, 28 June 2001
Evenementul Zilei
“Minister of Health, Daniela Bartos investigated for international adoptions”
According to the article “Evenimentul Zilei” newspaper is in the possession of documents stating that the former and present minister for health, Mrs. Daniela Bartos, has been enquired in 1997 in relation with the international adoptions.
According to the government organigrame, in 1996 the State Secretary within the Ministry of Health was the head of the Romanian Committee for Adoption. Between January and August 1996, the State Secretary Daniela Bartos was the head of CRA and then starting with August 1996 until December 1996 she was promoted as Minister within the same ministry. The penal dossier, in which Mrs. Bartos was investigated in 1997, was related to irregularities in CRA documents during 1996.
Minister Bartos denies that she has been part of some penal dossier stating only that she has been asked some questions in 1997 by the district attorney and after that she never heard anything about this dossier. She also acknowledged that the police investigated cases related to the forgery documents issued by CRA but although her signature was on that documents she consider herself innocent as these documents were pre-checked by the health ministry’s jurist. She declared: “it is posible that within the documents issued by CRA in that period some of them to be faked but without my knowledge. The role of the jurist, Mr. Ioan Filoti, is to check the legality of the documents to be signed by me”. Mrs. Bartos signed 3000 adoption confirmations in 1996 and although the signature of the adoption specialist was required according to the enforced legislation. Also, during the period when Mrs. Bartos was minister, she was not entitled to manage CRA. She justified the signatures on the documents as “I kept signing as I did considered that in this way I can keep under control the corruption within the system”.
Besides the cases of Mrs. Bartos and Mr. Filoti two other persons were investigated: Petre Patrascu and Carmen Tatarus. Both of them are now working for “Irene & Stuart” foundation, which are managed by Elena Bustea and her sister. The two lawyers have been involved at that time in international adoptions, especially sending children to Spain and are good friends of Mrs. Bustea. Practically the two lawyers are making the link between the Daniela Bartos and Elena Bustea, now being under penal inquiring. All these are leading to a potential children traficking network with connections to the top level of the Romanian administration. Petre Patrascu is the Irene foundation vice-president and partner of Elena Bustea in “Sitka-Alask srl” company. The same newspaper wrote at the end of 1999 in a couple of articles related to the international adoptions. In 1999 the lawyer Patrascu was investigated by the Organised Crime Prevention Brigade with regard to the substitution of some documents related to an adoption dossier for a very ill child form Constanta.
On the other hand Elena Bustea has been and is the subject of many national and international press scandals since 1995.