The facto coordinator of the presidential campaign of Nicușor Dan, the businessman Matei Păun has collected proven links with the dictator-president Aleksandr Lukașeno from Belarus, with whom he has been running for several years.
Nicușor Dan and Matei Păun have a close relationship for many years Photo Facebook, LinkedIn
Near Nicușor Dan for several years and de facto coordinator of his campaign for this year’s presidential elections, Matei Păun is known for his pro-Putin posts and for connections with Russian and Belarus companies, a country subject to international sanctions.
“Matei Păun told me that he has an almost exclusive business relationship with Lukașenko”
The well -known economist Andrei Caramitru confessed that he knew Matei Păun before 2014. At that time, Andrei Caramitru was leading the Romanian branch of the famous American consulting company McKinsey. At one point, Andrei Caramitru’s assistant told him that he was looking for a certain Matei Păun from a Bac Consulting company.
“I had not heard in my life neither by Matei Păun nor by this company. And I had no interest in meeting myself. In parallel, Mr. Păun, I do not know, came in contact with a colleague of mine from abroad. And somehow organized a table with Matei Păun. I didn’t want to see myself, because I didn’t know who he was. But my colleague told me to come too, that someone from me in the country. And practically what he offered us then Matei Păun was very simple. He told me that he offers us a new market in which millions of euros can be made a year and to associate with him and the partners, who had some names with some Bessarabian connotations. >, Matei Păun told me. Later, I made checks through the company and discovered from the analysis that the man wrote some super hard pro-putin posts. Already he wrote that Ukraine must be broken in two, that Russia must expand more in Europe, that Romania must be more in the area. And then we decided to put him on the black list and not have any discussion with this man ”said Andrei Caramitru for “Adevărul”.
“The connections of Matei Păun with Russia are much clearer than those of Potra”
In 2017, Euromoney, a very serious bank magazine, made a ranking related to the most active people on banking areas and financial intermediaries. And in the first place in Belarus was ranked the company run by Matei Păun.
“I wonder how do you get that the great financial transactions of the state of Belarus go through you? It’s a very strange connection. We are talking, for example, now, about these investigations with Horațiu Potra, with his connections with the Russian Embassy, his connections with Russia are relatively indirect. Matei Păun’s ties with Russia are much clearer than Potra’s. Matei Păun is a person directly associated with Lukașenko who is Putin’s pawn. I mean, we talk very high. And they are public data, it is not poetry. My question is why not to disperse Nicușor Dan de Matei Păun? Especially since everyone is talking about this. I am absolutely convinced that Nicușor Dan is addicted to something, I cannot explain otherwise. We cannot afford to have a president who after that, I do not know, maybe you have to consult Matei Păun at any decision, and then the latter may call Lukașenko. And if Nicușor Dan does not answer why he does not get rid of Matei Păun, he is very serious. It is a risk of national security. It is possible to ask the problem of invalidating the candidacy of Nicușor Dan. What if the head of George Simion’s campaign at presidential would be a directly associated character with a Russian oligarch? We have the same thing, but only we like the character because Nicușor Dan is so civilized ”adds Andrei Caramitru.
Matei Păun (left) and Nicușor Dan at the event in 2016 Photo Facebook/Andrei Botescu
“Adevărul” tried to talk to Nicușor Dan to ask him what role and concrete function Matei Păun plays in his campaign for the presidential elections and what is the reason why he continues to team with him, although Matei Păun is known in the public space for his pro-Putin positions and Pro-Rusia and because he does business with Aleksandr Luka. But Nicușor Dan did not answer the phone or the message sent by us.
What Matei Păun said in 2017: “The Russians have a sense of sacrifice rarely encountered in the West”
In 2017, in an extensive interview for Vice, Matei Păun made some extremely interesting statements.
9 years ago, Matei Păun told the journalists from Vice that he had a faculty in the US state of Connecticut, that he then lived in New York, after which he returned to Romania because he worked for an investment fund, the first American fund to invest in the ex-Soviet space: “They made the decision in ’96 to enter Romania and asked me if I want to deal with this extension. It was an incident that I took advantage of. I was the first employee of this fund, these people had the crazy idea to invest in Russia. At that time, in the 1990s, Russia was at the beginning of a deep transformation, from a Soviet state to something else. And for me it was a fantastic experience to have an experience in the world of finance, in a country with such deep changes. 25% of the time was on the roads, in Ukraine, in Russia, in the Baltic countries. And, starting from ’97, in Romania. Then I was recruited by a competitor, by a British investment company, to do the same in the ex-Soviet countries. “
In the same interview for Vice, Matei Păun stated that in America, the problem of Russia is seen by two prisms: the realistic school of international and idealistic relations, which act on the international stage based on principles and not necessarily based on pragmatic interests, adding: “I found myself on the side of the barricade of the realistic school. This is how Reagan, and Kissinger, also positioned. I was very disappointed with the idealistic school, given the results I observed in the Middle East in the last decade and a half. A realist would have said: Gaddafi is a bad man, but we have a dialogue with him, through which we have reached a balance, we have some interests we are following, and he is an interlocutor you can discuss. The other side, with “regime change”, says we have to replace it. This interventionism does not help us, nor on local populations. They are not pro-gaddafi, but it is absolutely clear that Libya during Gaddafi’s time was a much more civilized and safe country than it is now. Libyans were doing much better ten years ago. So do the Syrians. “
And also in the interview of 9 years ago, Matei Păun was of the opinion that the West was wrong in relation to Russia.
“We forget that the Russians, for a long time, in the 90s and even in the first part of the 2000s, wanted to be received in the Western family. If you read Putin’s speeches, Lavrov, from that period, we will see that they have repeatedly expressed this intention. Unfortunately, I think the West was wrong. We had the opportunity to create less conflict peace, compared to what we have now. We returned to the barricades 20-30 years ago. A cold war, a conflict state. It is worth noting that at the human level, Russians and Americans understand each other well. I am not a religious person, but I appreciate the spirituality of the Russians. And it is clear that the Russian Orthodox Church has a mysticism and a weight, has something deep. I think the Russians have a sense of sacrifice rarely encountered in the West ”said Matei Păun in 2017 for Vice.
The relationship with Nicușor Dan
Nicușor Dan acknowledged in the spring of 2024 that Matei Păun was part of his campaign team for the elections at the Capital City Hall, but claimed that he did not take money from him. However, Matei Păun acknowledged that he negotiated to Nicușor Dan at least one contract of over 180,000 euros for the street panel in pre-Campanie. Last year, Nicușor Dan launched an advertising campaign in Bucharest, carried out only on the street panels of Getica Ooh SRL, a company that would have connected with Matei Păun. In the public statements, the businessman denied the links with the mentioned society, but stated that he negotiated Nicușor Dan’s contract for street advertising.
“Matei Păun was the official campaign chief of mine and the USR, eight years ago, yes, everyone knows that, and that’s all. He didn’t give me any money in this campaign, and that’s all (…). As publicly said several times, it is one of the 10 people who are part of my staff at this time, but that’s all. That is, from the so-called campaign team, people I advise on the messages we give in the public space when I go out. Did not contribute financially ”declared Nicușor Dan in 2024.
Păun’s business
Matei Păun is the founder of the Bac Investments investment bank, with operations in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia and Belarus.
Păun is also an administrator of Bac Financial Advisory, where he is associated with Thales Ventures. According to data from the Ministry of Finance, BAC Financial Advisory deals with business and management consulting activities, was established in 2018, has 4 employees, and in 2023 had losses of 316,916 lei.
