Romanian prosecutors charged a Bulgarian citizen with espionage officially on Tuesday after hearings at on the privatization of Romanian energy companies at the Supreme Court on Monday. Bulgarian consultant Stamen Stanchev is believed to have created an organized crime ring leaking classified information to preferential entities interested in the privatization of energy companies in Romania.

Seven other people including officials from Romanian ministries are investigated in the case.

In his defense, Stanchev has said he did not have any special relationship with Romanian Economy minister Codrut Seres and Communication minister Zsolt Nagy, both linked recently to the leaking of classified information over energy contracts. He said that he had to meet top Romanian officials such as the two during his work as a consultant for Credit Suisse First Boston.

Stanchev is suspected of having obtained secret data on tenders organized by the Romanian Economy Ministry and of passing them to international companies, which might have established their strategies to join the tenders accordingly.