An American cablegate from the US Embassy to Bucharest, released by Wikileaks via Spanish daily El Pais reveals that in 2008 the American company Boeing accused European producer Airbus for being ready to bribe Romanian governmental officials to obtain a contract to renew Tarom’s airplanes.
The bribe would represent 3% of the value of the contract but finally the contract was offered to Boeing. The cablegate, signed by former US Ambassador Nicholas Taubman reports a talk with the regional Boeing representative, Monte Frazier. The latter told the Ambassador that about the rumors that Airbous would be ready to bribe some officials in the Romanian Transports ministry.
Frazier said that Tarom managers would be inclined to accept Boeing’s offer but in a meeting outside Romania they said that government officials were bribed by EADS, the main shareholder of Airbus.
