Prosecutors in Romania raided employees’ homes and the Romanian unit of Serbian NIS Petrol and have opened a criminal investigation into allegations of confidential data leaks, they said.
NIS Petrol is controlled by Russia’s Gazprom Neft and Serbia’s president on Tuesday said it was case “of political espionage.”
Prosecutors for anti-organized crime said they raided the company’s offices and the homes of nine workers in Bucharest and the western Romanian city of Timisoara.
The case involves „divulging sensitive information and the illegal transfer of digital data.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the case was “bad” for his country.
“It has nothing to do with energy battles, but it’s a case of political spying,” he told Euronews Serbia, News.ro reported.
Prosecutors said four NIS Petrol staff were under criminal investigation after questioning eight persons. There was no word on whether they had detained anyone.
Prosecutors claim that workers transferred non-public information regarding mineral deposits to their Serbian parent business.
NIS Petrol has oil and gas exploration and extraction concessions in Romania.
