A suspicious deal
by STELIAN TANASE

In February 2003, Lieutenant Colonel Willem Matser was arrested. His trial is approaching. Willem Matser, former counter-intelligence officer in the Dutch youth army. He is a qualified expert in Russian and Eastern European issues. He was a counselor to Lord Robertson, NATO Secretary General. Matser was a promoter of NATO enlargement and of improving relations with Russia. He was also an expert for special services.

He therefore had a strategic position, very important, on the corridors of Brussels. His spectacular arrest was triggered by the discovery made by the customs authorities of documents that indicated onerous financial operations. These are documents belonging to the Colombian bank Santander Bank to the company Tender SA, from Romania. After a months-long investigation, Matser was arrested. He admitted that he carried out 16 such operations, which the Dutch police consider a money laundering scheme. That's a lot of millions of dollars. What makes a character so suspicious, influential, in such operations, in which the mafia of drug dealers, suspicious business, special services mix, is hard to say. The process may clarify the matter, may not.

Matser's role is extremely complicated and mysterious; it is only to be clarified. He was linked to cartels of drug dealers in Colombia, to mafia networks, to NATO's top circles. He had political and business relations in Russia and Eastern Europe. It had confidential information that could be used. The money resulting from the washing operations intends to invest them in Romania, in oil, in agriculture and tourism. The amount he wanted to attract on the Romanian market was $ 2-3 billion. Why Matser chose precisely Romania for his business is a good question. Of course, the process is just beginning and there may be many revelations.

How could the business be musamalized as well. Given the military, and other types of secret intelligence connections, many aspects could remain in the shadow. I have no idea if there was a backstage negotiation before going public. Such a process is also a media event. Already the international press has taken the issue to the fore. The Guardian, The World etc. I give him a lot of space. Matser is an expert in information and counter-information, in networks and in all kinds of secrets. Sure Willem Matser knows a lot. His silence can be bought or, better said, exchanged for a lighter punishment. There may be no agreement between the parties, and then we will witness some revelations. In this case, Romania will not miss. It will often be remembered.

In Bucharest the process will be followed with great care. Matser traveled in Romania as an official in 2002. It was introduced, according to several press sources, by Ioan Talpes, in political circles at the highest level and in business circles. We do not know if and what role the special services of Romania played. Matser had a dual language. One official and the other underground, of his own interests, which seemed as if they were not clean. Another name that was mentioned in the Matser chain was that of Timisoara businessman Ovidiu Tender. Tender entered the press with the case of Rosia Montana, as partner of Frank Timis. It has a business conglomerate.

He is one of the richest people in Romania. Matser had offered to buy 45% of Tender's business for $ 100 million. It is not clear whether it is money that washes or washes. Tender is one of those who want to participate in the privatization of Petrom. Petrom produces 10% of GDP. He's a giant. Tender and Matser were interested in the business. He had to participate with them and the Halliburton company, where the president was, until 2000, the current vice president of the United States, Dick Cheney. Indeed, it seems that Caspian oil and Constanta-Trieste pipeline, for which Romania already has an agreement with Serbia and Croatia, have attracted these interests. The money in question has grown exponentially. It is no longer a business of several million dollars, but of many billions. It is enough to understand what great interests are linked to this privatization. The competition is extremely close. It has been said, moreover, that the operation (Matser's arrest, concerted press attacks, etc.) would be a counter-attack by Tender & Matser's opponents, an operation of intoxication and discredit. To go the way of these combinations on NATO? In Moscow?

Matser made several visits to Romania last year. He participated here in two meetings of special services from NATO countries and candidate countries, one in Sinaia in April and another in Snagov in August. One of the sponsors of the meeting was Tender, the other Frank Timis. Ioan Talpes was always close to Matser, whom he introduced as his friend and of Romania. Matser had meetings at the highest level and played a central role in Sinaia and Snagov. He made statements that puzzled, as they contradicted the official NATO positions in Brussels.

I quote: "I personally have no problem with the former Security officers in the Romanian services, if it is not a certain category. If he was a good technical officer, a good analyst. Why should we lack such values? to tell you that I trust the current heads of the Romanian secret services, otherwise I would not be here ". Now there is the connection between Tender and Matser. Their business starts fast and with impressive amounts. Matser is interested in investing in several areas and seems to have extremely consistent funds. Where does Matser's money come from, a NATO official? Are the money from the washing operations? Was the network and scheme linking Colombia with Romania, via Brussels, already operational last summer? Since? What money did they run? For whose benefit? Is anyone else part of the combination in Bucharest?

How mixed is Bucharest, however, through its officials, in this business? How involved - and if they are - are the special services? Do they participate in money laundering operations or other operations that could be labeled illegal? A parliamentary commission should investigate the situation if the Dutch trial takes a bad turn for Romania's image. After the "Tigareta operation" of the former regime, 1996-2000, this one, Matser & Tender;, would still be one in which the special services would leave room for ... serious suspicions, to express myself cautiously. This whole story sounds like a bad cop novel, like a dozen John Le Carre. But it has an intrigue as the suspense. And the story just started.

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