1981: Gheorghe Stefanescu, the Walter White of wine
December 14th, 2019 Headsman
Romanian entrepreneur Gheorghe Stefanescu was shot at Jilava Prison on this date in 1981. He was at the center of one of the largest corruption scandals of the Communist period.
A Bucharest liquor-store administrator, Stefanescu built a vast network that sold unlicensed and adulterated wine throughout the 1970s. When arrested in 1978 — after a Securitate officer noticed that the wine he’d ordered for a wedding decayed into sludge when the festivity was delayed — Stefanescu had accumulated a villa, two cars, 18 kg in gold jewelry, and millions in lei. More than 200 other people, ranging from distributors to officials corrupted by bribes, were arrested when the operation was rolled up.
The way it worked was, a vineyards administrator would fraudulently declare part of his product a loss to natural disaster, and squirrel it away illicitly. This contraband was then multiplied in volume and profitability by diluting the highest-quality wine with cheap plonk. Stefanescu and friends moved some 400,000 liters of this stuff from 1971 to 1978, costing the Romanian government several million dollars in lost revenue — a laughably pinprick injury compared to Romania’s post-Ceausescu sea of corruption but as they say, a prophet is never welcome in his own country.
Bring your Romanian proficiency to enjoy the 1984 film about the affair, Secretul lui Bachus (Secrets of Bacchus).
On this day..
- 1931: Fatma Demir, the first woman hanged in Turkey - 2018
- 1650: Not Anne Greene, miraculously delivered - 2017
- 1661: Murad Bakhsh, son of the Taj Mahal builder - 2016
- 1556: A canon's servant - 2015
- 1793: A Lyon mitraillade - 2014
- 1759: William Davis, St. Croix slave revolt suicide - 2013
- 1761: Jacinto Canek, Mayan revolutionary - 2012
- 1417: The Falstaffian John Oldcastle - 2011
- 1930: Captains Fermin Galan and Angel Garcia Hernandez - 2010
- 10 executions that defined the 2000s - 2009
- 1971: Martyred Intellectuals' Day in Bangladesh - 2009
- 1903: William Ennis, wife-murdering cop - 2008
- 1974: Charles Dean and Neal Sharman - 2007
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Businessmen,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Drugs,Execution,History,Organized Crime,Pelf,Romania,Shot
Tags: 1980s, 1981, alcohol, december 14, gheorghe stefanescu, jilava, jilava prison, wine
