Bankruptcy
The Romanian government banned pyramid schemes only after Caritas went bankrupt. The government received warnings about the scheme from several sources, included the Romanian Intelligence Service, which wrote a report in early 1993 (leaked to the press) and from Daniel Dăianu, the chief economist at the National Bank, who called it a fraud.
As president Ion Iliescu commented on the issue, the main reason why the government allowed the game to go on was the fear of being ousted by riots and protests, or being afraid that such a measure would make it more unpopular.
The first signs of the downfall were in autumn 1993, when several western newspapers ran articles on Caritas predicting its failure. At the same time, more and more Romanian newspapers published stories on it. In a press conference in September 1993, president Iliescu predicted its demise, noting that anyone with an elementary education could predict that anything which gives eightfold returns in three months cannot last.
There were discussions in parliament on banning such schemes. The state-controlled Romanian Television ran a negative report on Caritas, which indicated that it might have problems with the state.
After this, the operations stopped for two days, initially explained as a computer error. Stoica tried to show that everything was fine by opening a large supermarket in Cluj-Napoca. Although Caritas opened new branches in more cities, it failed to gather enough money to continue its activity and it was not able to pay back money for those who deposited after July 5.
In February 1994, Stoica claimed Caritas was not dead, just reorganizing itself. Soon it again announced a temporary cessation of activities, blaming the government. Stoica announced the termination of activities on May 19, 1994, saying his staff was trying to find a way to return the money to some of the depositors.
Stoica was sentenced in 1995 by the Cluj Courthouse to seven years in prison for fraud, but he appealed and it was reduced to two years; then he went on to the Supreme Court of Justice and the sentence was reduced to one and a half years. He has been free since June 14, 1996. The trials between the depositors and the Caritas company were still under way as of 2004.
Read more about this topic: Caritas (Ponzi Scheme)
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