DIICOT raids Oil Terminal and Constanța customs over alleged fuel tax fraud

Searches across six locations

On Thursday, 12 November 2026, DIICOT prosecutors and police executed 46 home search warrants in Bucharest and in the counties of Constanța, Bacău, Prahova, Galați and Ilfov. The case concerns the alleged creation of an organized criminal group, tax evasion, illegal obtaining of funds, fraud, diverting public tenders and abuse of office, some of them continued offences with particularly serious consequences. Hearings are taking place at DIICOT's central headquarters, and all persons under investigation are presumed innocent.

A fuel-tax network built on fake invoices

According to the investigators, four suspects formed the group in 2023, and other members joined later. Its members split the work across fuel supply, sales, finances, paperwork and accounting, and one suspect is said to have directed the whole structure. The investigators describe that leadership in these terms.

“The group's activity was coordinated by one suspect, who controlled several commercial companies through persons formally appointed as administrators.”

An insolvent company was inserted between the diesel supplier and the firm selling to end customers. It issued invoices for deliveries that never took place, and the buyer used them to deduct VAT unlawfully. Between December 2023 and August 2025, more than 340 such invoices worth over 208 million lei were recorded, and the VAT damage is about 33.3 million lei. Prosecutors also say the group tried to clear VAT payments by pointing to a supposed negative balance from 2019 reversals, for which no refund right had been recognised.

Loans and customs duties

Seven companies obtained credits of more than 41 million lei through the IMM Invest and IMM Invest Plus programmes, prosecutors said, and bank employees, analysts and credit committee members supported the mechanism. The largest sum concerns customs. Customs inspectors and staff at the bonded warehouse operator applied a regime that let excise duties and import VAT be postponed, deferring about 238.6 million lei. Damage from the late collection exceeds 25 million lei in interest and penalties. Prosecutors say a suspect holding a leadership post in a county public finance administration helped the group.

Fictitious invoices (more than)208

IMM Invest credits (more than)41

Customs duties deferred (about)238.6

VAT damage (about)33.3

Customs interest and penalties (more than)25

Fictitious invoices (more than)

208 million lei

IMM Invest credits (more than)

41 million lei

Customs duties deferred (about)

238.6 million lei

VAT damage (about)

33.3 million lei

Customs interest and penalties (more than)

25 million lei

Data from the article text

Who is reportedly targeted

G4Media, citing its sources, reports that the searches reach Gabriel Daraban, commercial director of Oil Terminal, who reportedly resigned on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, a day before the raids. Other reported targets include the head of Constanța customs and other customs officers, the head of the ANAF Bacău tax inspection, Oil Terminal directors and CEC Bank employees. A separate report lists a CEC Bank head and the former head of the Constanța border customs office among those targeted. G4Media says Gabriel Daraban attended the searches and could not be reached for comment. He is the brother of Mihai Daraban, president of Romania's Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Gabriel Daraban also administers Global Defense Logistics, where the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) carried out searches in October in a case about services for NATO military ships.

Russian oil allegation

DIICOT links the group to two firms, Euronova Energies in Switzerland and Alkagesta LTD in Malta, which it says ran a mechanism bringing Russian oil into Romania with help from Constanța customs. According to G4Media's account of the statement, the scheme circumvented international sanctions on Russian oil by falsifying origin and transport documents and using parallel maritime shipping networks that are hard to monitor.