I think that by now, after 4 days into this "Birthday Month Marathon" of mine...I could delve a little deeper and I promise you this story can rival any Hollywood movie, so twisted is the plot....
Sooo, why did I go to Court? Who is this mighty powerful Maria Baciu who has people on their toes? Why was she so keen to sue me? .... Well, the short answer for who she is would be: she is a very skilled accountant who understands the American fiscal system, including taxation, etc. very well, and who has the "courage", which other professionals with the same or more credentials don't, to shuffle money, around, to put it in all the right places, to make it look good, all those goodies... Yeah, I think I just beat around the bush. Shall I call her a "money magician" ? Does it sounds more like story telling? Someone who can make money money appear and disappear, or multiply, whatever....I know very little about this field but I know a lot about how precious this skills can be, especially if you have a lot of money... For those who live off salary, I don't think is such problem keeping track of money as much as keeping track of expenses...tell me about this...
Ms. Baciu is a Romanian, who emigrated to United States sometimes back in the '80s. I heard a few stories about her, from her and from others...and somehow all are conflicting. I did a little research on my own...It appears that she was married in Romania and had a toddler, ironically enough, the name of her daughter is Alexandra, too. Her husband defected and arrived to America in search of Liberty and Democracy, away from the tyrannically run Romania, by the Ceausescu family. Back in the '80s the poverty and misery of Romanians were unbearable. She was an economist her husband an engineer.
[Quick parenthesis here: there is nothing that I hate more, then people who run away from poor, corrupted countries, and instead of coming here to retreat and heal, they come here to "spread" the disease they have]
So, like any good father, he wanted to secure the future of his daughter so he brought them over. Here, the story gets conflicted, depends who tells it. She boroughs from other people's life stories, conveniently, because from my experience with her she is very unscrupulous and she seems to be gifted with some good acting abilities which she can turn on or off as the situation dictates... Usually this is a common trace to many individuals who broke the law. Next to their uncontrollable need for power, which is usually bought with money....and aggressive behavior...hidden under a charming appearance....yeah, textbook! I know!
So, the three of them were a family of Romanian immigrants , starting fresh. However, her story is that her husband used to beat her up and was also a player and eventually she run away. From my limited research, it was a split based on lack of love. And if I tracked him down correctly, he seem to be a respectable guy, remarried, and living on the West Coast. He seemed to have naturalized and adjust himself to the land and the law, here, just fine, vis-a-vis Mariana Baciu's drive and insatiable desire to make more, more money. I will explain...
This money hunger could probably be a solid reasoning why, later on, she will re-marry with Petru Baciu, 34 years her senior. This dude, another fellow Romanian, was doing really well for himself, here in America. He was a scientist and later in life has became a philanthropist. The money he earned prior to their marriage were earned totally legal: as a scientist. America was always a country who bought brains and "know how" so he got paid handsomely for his knowledge, and that's an admirable thing.
This dude invested some of his money in real estate. Bought himself two apartment buildings, with hundreds of apartments, and paid them in full back in 1978. He actually had an initial partner, who owned a huarter of the buildings and was on the superintending role, so it was a solid business union, at least theoretically. Later on he remained a widow, after his wife passed. Sadly he and his wife never had any kids. Enters Maria Baciu....
Sometimes before his wife passed, the current Ms. Baciu became a tenant, while she was divorced, or divorcing, single mother, and had a decent but good job where she was using her training as an economist. Remembering, this is the late of 1980s when America's economy is booming, unemployment is 2.5% and only if you do not want a job you don't get one. And for the next decade, economy was in great shape, all the way until 2001, followed by now, notoriously unforgettable financial collapse of 2008. I was in college, already in New York City, by the time of financial meltdown, and I was happy to be in school, because there were no jobs waiting for most of us, anyway, so school looked like a better option, to beef up my package....
Now, if I would have to switch my storytelling, to hers, I should go on to say that she and Petru Baciu had a beautiful soul-mate connection and there was an union made in heaven. I can't contradict her, I wasn't there. But there were a few details that kind of throw me off about her story...First of all, as an admitted workaholic, as she likes to call herself, or a money worshiper, a term I would personally prefer for her, she told me that she got married at the city hall, during her lunch break. I thought that doesn't match the soul-mate, romantic love story that she claimed. Being that I would love to have my own business in wedding planning and organizing, and I am already thinking about this and doing tones of research, I can assure you that even the most poor people and most unemployed, during the most crappy economy, still dream about and try to create a special day, for their wedding, even if that means cooking their own food....
Petru Baciu was solid proof financially, was not known for being frugal, as you will see later in my post, the economy was rolling high, he was getting married with a woman much younger, getting a lovely, "ready made" daughter, being that he never had his own, they have this "amazing romance"...yet, they get hitched during her lunch break...Wow, everything this woman does or touches it seems to me fully dysfunctional. Talking about dysfunctional...Don't even get me started about that unbelievable masquerade called trial that we had...
This "we got hitched on the lunch time" sounds like gold digging to me, but what do I know??? I am an incurable idealist!...
However there are evidences that Ms. Baciu took over the management of those properties, and giving her financial skills made them profitable. Really profitable. So profitable, that her daughter was raised going to best schools, in America and in Europe, she played expensive sports, and allegedly her mother was able to acquire more properties, which are safely and solely on her daughter's name: a home in California and another one in Hawaii. It might be others, but that's all I know about so far. Digging up this story has kept me alive. Nope, I'm not kidding now. I have a very refined sense of humor, and I love to laugh, but I never laugh when it comes to life and death situation. I am not sick. People who are hurting or who's lives are endangered do not amuse me. As a matter of fact, I don't even watch thrillers, horrors and mafia movies because my life has been so close to danger in several occasions that I do not need some artificially created adrenaline, I've got enough giving the circumstances....
However, that amazing soul-mate connection that she was blasting about to me, apparently fizzled out, because in the last 5 years of his conscious life, Petru spent time in Romania, doing philanthropic work, and siphoning some of his fortune. There is this article in a Romanian newspaper that I dig it, in which the editors praised him for spending $2.5 million between him and his brother, to build a medical clinic, roads, and some eco-power generator in the Romanian village where they were born.
No love lost....No love found....
My understanding is that even if he was already in his 80th decade of life, was very agile in his business and very passionate about his work projects over there. Well, his only brother lost his only son, and his wife, and then we went, too, RIP, so Petru had this projects in Romania that made him feel alive and useful. While Maria was running the businesses in New York, and flying alternatively to California, to see her daughter, and to Romania to see Petru. Knowing Mariana Baciu the way I got to know her now, I can only imagine her furry about all the money being siphoned on charity, while she felt that she was the one creating all this profit here in America, giving her excellent "money shuffling" skills... I'm sure that as any good accountant, she knew how to divert some of the profit into a safety nest of her own, but there is a "Catch 22" : she only owned 24% of the apartment buildings. He kept on being the principal owner with 76%. So if he went, that 76% of ownership went too, most likely to the charitable foundation that he established in Romania. And then, Maria could be in court for years with someone just like her....Uhhh, what a nightmare. The trial we had was like a visit to a spa for her...amazingly enough!...
However,...Maria Baciu will use anything that will beef up her Napoleonic ego. So, although she deeply hated all those good deeds that Petru was doing, while they were semi separated, living in two continents for five years, she used the Baciu name to attached herself to some philanthropic acts that she has never done, and she would have put a stopped altogether, long ago, only if she could... Ahhh, there is so much more...I'll have to sort it out in chapters, really...You will see her real "philanthropist" profile, soon...I have a month of writing...and I am....
**If she didn't sue me I would have never had the pleasure of looking over some documents which she submitted as evidence in trial. I lost the trial because I was ushered in an isolated court room, where .... you know the story....but not because I didn't have a solid case, nor that I was stupid. I actually grab those evidences and went downstairs and make a copy as soon as the trial finished. Because, now being admitted as exhibits in court, those became public documents. And I honestly feared that, because anything seems so easily attainable for her, I might never get to see those documents again....i mean, if thousands of people vanished...I believe is much easier with some loose sheets of papers...
It's hilarious when they during the masquerade handled me the exhibits to look at it....and I wish you would have seen her face when I actually looked at those. No, I didn't want to look at her, when I grabbed them for photocopies. I already know what she was thinking....Money worshipers are probably the worst kind of sociopaths, and although I am not a doctor to diagnose her, I can recognize all the tell tale signs, and I believe other will, after i reach the end of the story.... Well, I know there were several plots to kill me, but now I think that the hit man search will be resetted, of course, ALWAYS using others. After all she got all those people who tip toe around her... I was the only one who didn't conform to the "ritual"....because I didn't feel as I belonged....you will see...
The story has many layers, like a novel, but its not a fantasy, its part of my memoir, things I live ... and I will have to structure well when I write this "plot" because I want to be a good writer. By the way, writing is not easy, it really takes a lot from me...it's an intense concentration, and those of you who write know exactly how demanding writing can be....
I'll be back...
In the mean time...here is the link to one article about Petru Baciu's activities over there, in the Romanian newspaper
http://www.gandul.info/reportaj/in-fata-cui-si-a-scos-pro-tv-palaria-de-1-decembrie-5146221
An, here is a photo of him from the same newspaper.
Peter Baciu, the man who became a millionaire in America, and now spends all in Romania
I used their own caption....Outch!!
Here is the translated article...but you have the link above...
Brothers Baciu - philanthropic millionaires Dolheşti
The history of over 600 years the village Dolheşti, in Iasi, nothing happened most extraordinary than Baciu brothers return immediately after the Revolution. Peter Baciu is 83 years old.
He went to America in 1969 and made a fortune designing plants. He returned home when he realized that the greatest wealth is what you leave behind. His brother, Constantin Baciu, is 90 years old. He fled his country and in the same year. He wanted to help his son to become a great pianist.He moved to Rome and became the first family doctor, then to become a renowned cardiologist and personal physician to Pope John Paul II. In 1991, the brothers returned to Dolheşti and decided to do everything to raise mud village where buried. Constantin Baciu would have liked to return to the village with his son, but, ironically, he died succumbed even heart disease.
"After his death, I do not do than by acts of books and so." After son's death, Dr. Baciu has decided to leave the legacy of the name of his native village. But death does not wait to get busy. He began restoring military-style village. "The first thing you need to do when a military unit occupies an area is to take care of roads. Thus were all paved streets and bridges made and in some cases".
They spent about a million and a half euros only asphalt. Regained their land confiscated by the communists and they gave people to work without asking for anything in return.
Moreover, they set up a foundation that helps poor people and young people who want to go to college. Peter Baciu, however, has plans and higher. Old engineer wants to make Dolheşti only village in Romania lighting a special wind, vertical shaft, invented by him and patented OSIM America. He knows he has the best wind Dolhestii country, stronger even as the seaside.
"It is a pity that this energy is not used. We found 70 sites already." All without asking anything in return. (PRO TV)