Tudor Constantinescu, 39, grew up in the Transylvanian region
of Romania under the care of his grandparents, left at age 15 to get his
education in the culinary arts in Belgium where he had the
chance to study with some of the great masters, and then afterward returned to
Romania to build a successful multi-city chain of luxury cafes called Chocolat.
He became a television celebrity on the TOP CHEF program in Romania,
and was a gastronomy consultant for
the Marriott hotel chain in the United States and for Royal Caribbean cruises.
This week the Bucharest Court approved his arrest, along
with two top associates, for alleged tax evasion, computer
fraud, and setting up an organized criminal network in which
he was said to have been operating since 2008. He was taken
into custody at Henri Coanda International Airport yesterday
as he was returning to Bucharest from a journey to Turkey.
Tudor Constantinescu allegedly purchased a software accounting program
that was installed inside cash registers and that generated a double
record, one for real sales actually carried out, and one for
fictitious sales, reduced intentionally and thus taxed based on the
unreal reduced sales data.
Damages to the Romanian state budget are estimated at
2.2 million RON (more than US $53M dollars), according
to a report today by the Digi24 television channel.
Yesterday, following his arrest, Tudor Constantinescu issued this public statement:
"Thanks to all partners and customers of Chocolat, I want to assure them of the
professionalism, fairness and transparency which were always based on the
business they have built over the last nine years. During this period,
Chocolat rose through honest work of some great people and devotees and
through creativity from a restaurant and seven employees, and a team of
over 170 people in six locations in Bucharest. I will work with authorities
during the investigation to prove my innocence. I apologize for exposing
customers to the situation today and I guarantee Chocolat will continue to
live up to expectations and will maintain the same high standards in terms of
products and services."
The Antena 1 television channel in Romania must now decide what it will do
about Tudor Constantinescu's high profile celebrity role on its culinary show series, some episodes
of which already have been filmed.
ALLAN CRUSE
14 NOV 2015