The most profitable company in Romania last year was a firm established in a village in the county of Brasov. American European Marketing&Enterprises, with no employees but with a bigger profit than that of major oil company Petrom - 3.68 billion euro (2.5% of the Romanian GDP), is established in the village of Fantana, Hoghiz community in Brasov county and declares it operates on the real estate market.

A representative of the company, Cornel Ionescu, told HotNews.ro that indeed the company was most profitable in the country but refused to offer any other information related to its activities. Cornel Ionescu said they did not offer key information by telephone and offered to have talks with HotNews.ro next week.

Senator and lawyer Iulian Urban who compiled a list of Romania's most profitable companies, told HotNews.ro that last year, when the company showed a profit of 747.6 million RON, he asked then-minister of Finance Gheorghe Pogea whether the firm paid its taxes to the state, as it had not submitted its balance sheet for 2008. Urban said he received no answer to his question.

Associates in the company, according to data submitted at the Registry of Commerce, are Afusoae Daniel, Wilfried Szapirow, Ionescu Cornel, Nica Lucian, Pintilie Stefan, Pintilie Victoria and Szapirow Andreas Marko, most of them elderly people.

The firm is not listed among those with debt to the Romanian state.