Ma numesc Daniela Vitelaru. In cele ce urmeaza va voi spune povestea scandalului in care am fost implicata in iunie 2016 la Londra de catre Ziarul Romanesc si Gazeta Romaneasca.
Detalii aici:
Ce urmeaza, veti vedea.
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September 2013 – I got an email from Roxana Damian with the proposal to meet her husband – Justinian Moga – and give him a position at my ROMANIA IN CONTACT magazine, a bilingual magazine about successful Romanian people, I launched in June 2013. He worked in the media field and he also has experience in filming.
At that time I wanted to launch the ROMANIA IN CONTACT Studio – a series of video interviews with successful Romanian, like an online version, more attractive than the printed magazine, something to complete the concept of my magazine in online.
We had some work together, we agreed payment to him per interview for Romania in Contact, he asked a fee, I provided exactly that amount without negotiating. All the monies were paid in his account after he issued me an invoice for it.
November 2013 – I launched the concept of JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL TV – a school of television for Romanian children where we proposed to the community a project of learning through creativity and innovation, keeping the origins alive teaching children the Romanian language and Romanian traditions and culture.
He filmed a video there and he was supposed to edit it straight away. He delayed longer than one month and made difficult the process of promoting the concept which had 6 months to be advertised and enrol children for the actual opening of the school (24th of May 2014).
I explain to him we need to move according to the agenda as we are media people and a product delivered after too long time can cause bad feedback.
We carried out working for ROMANIA IN CONTACT Studio – we had 2 video’s he never delivered – filmed in January 2014 and February 2014 with a business man – George Betianu and Delia Antal – an actress who had a movie that I was a part of called D’Ora. At that moment we had a disagreement because he thought I got money for advertising the successful story of George Betianu and he asked me £800 instead of £150 the amount I paid him for every interview that had been done previously. I mentioned that I make these interviews with the purpose to put in the limelight the good, positive people which are doing well in the UK, not to charge any of them for the advertising of their business. Justinian Moga also asked me to lie all the time when George Betianu was asking me about the releasing of the interview and to tell him that it was by mistake formatted on the hardrive the cameraman stored it on, because Justinian Moga thought I was getting money for advertising from George Betianu and I pay his work only what he asked. I can prove that nobody interviewed paid money to me, this was not the purpose of ROMANIA IN CONTACT Studio. This two situations brought me damage in image inside of the community.
May 2014 – launch of JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL TV, the only Romanian children television launched in London. Justinian Moga filmed at this event and, after the incident with those two video and a discussion with his wife, we decided to carry on and somehow and sort out the inconvenience by releasing those videos. This was never to happen though.
Justinian Moga filmed at Junior TV classes every Saturday for 4 hours for the length of Module (1st of June- 13th of July 2014). Some Saturdays he missed the filming classes, all together he filmed for JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL TV a total of 20 hours.
July 2014 we had to prepare a video after the first Module to advertise the school. I told him we have to move quickly as the next Module was due to start in 2 weeks and we had to make the most out of this time.
He came to edit at my house, as he had no space at his place to have me there and edit the concept of the video-promotion for the school. For three days and three nights he spent time with his wife and child at my house. We worked about 10 hours on the actual editing of the video, all the rest were to know each other as professional working together on a long term as we wanted at that time.
Since the beginning, he knew that JUNIOR INTERNATIONAL TV started with a small capital and needed content created in order for the project to grow. He agreed, on a gentlemans agreement, to work for project and to charge the amount he was charging for ROMANIA IN CONTACT Studio. His long term proposal for Junior International was to be paid £2500 full time on a monthly basis after the project has grown. I agreed on that amount as soon as Junior was ready for it. But at that moment, this payment was not applied.
After the editing of the advertising school video, he told me the amount I have to give him for the work at Junior – 20 hours of filming and maximum 10 hours of editing – £3800, which meant 20 hours of filming (£100/hour) and 24 hours of editing (£75/hour). I was shocked and I told him this was not the right amount. He then said that without him I had no school of television as he was providing the image. This is ridiculous as I am a journalist and I know thousands of cameramen. The choice of working with him at that time was a bad one, but I didn’t know back then. I posted the video online as he allowed me to and I started to talk to him about reconsidering the sum he asked for. From July to October 2014 we talked decently about this issue with the mention that he had asked too less than what he was worth. I was happy to pay the amount we talked about, not the ludicrous sum. I also told him I need the raw footage as soon as he will decide to sign the contract with the amount we talked in the first instance. Nothing was sorted.
Around end October 2014 I saw on his brother wall on Facebook a message about the death of their mum. I sent my condolences. Next day I was contacted by Justinian Moga to give him straight away the money he believed I owed him – £3800 he said. I told him is a sad situation he is going through and I am really sorry about the loss. I asked him to sign the real agreement, the agreement we had on the right amount and I will sort it out quickly. He started to harass me that I owe him money and those monies need to be paid immediately. I still tried to open his eyes to the fact that this is not the way to do business and I can’t be responsible for a personal situation like this. At the end, under extreme pressure and harassment I told him to stop putting on my shoulders his problem. We should resolve the money problem and I will pay according with the gentlemen’s agreement we had.
November 2014 – I got in touch with another cameraman to carry on the Junior activity as I understood that Justinian Moga won’t fit the project and still at that time we hadn’t sorted out the money problem we had. I got a recommendation from an ex colleague of university. That person told me about the new cameraman – Raul Babos – that he has no previous television experience and that he is filming weddings and christenings in the Romanian community only. I decided to give him a try and invited him to one project to see his experience on the field of filming. I was finding him a good option and a cheap one as well – he asked me £20/h filming and £20/h editing.
We collaborated from November 2014 until February 2015. We had a contract signed he respected until the 15th of February 2015 when I had an argument because another money situation. On that day, 15th of February 2015, he filmed an extra project I had – Industry of beauty – an art & fashion event about Romanian talented designers I invited to showcase in London at my first edition of Industry of beauty fashion events I had in mind.
Industry of beauty is another company I run in London and I aim to put in the limelight talents and beauty from my country.
I agreed with Raul Babos for him to film 8 hours of the event for the amount of £250. I needed the raw footage only. I told him that this project of fashion is different from Junior Tv that has a different budget. He had exclusivity rights to film that event. At that event he met Justinian Moga. Raul Babos (as he was admitting later) was “warned” by Justinian Moga that I am not a good person as I never paid what I “owe” him and this might happen with him as well. Justinian Moga also suggested Raul Babos to charge me more for the raw footage of fashion event as he was the only one recording the show. Which he did. Next day after the event, when I asked him the footage, he said it will cost me £500 instead of £250 agreed. Justinian Moga also told Raul Babos that it is impossible for me to make a lot of profit after this fashion event and not pay the people plenty of money as they believe that they deserve. In this equation they didn’t know that I received a huge sponsorship with the location from Sir George Iacobescu who happen to be Romanian and to support my idea of fashion and art. I didn’t have huge amount of money for the event, I didn’t make a profit.
With Raul Babos I didn’t have an extra written agreement for filming the Industry of beauty event. That was very upsetting at the time as I trusted him, as the collaboration was going all right with Junior and some other ROMANIA IN CONTACT Studio interviews we had.
I insisted to pay the amount we agreed. We had an argument where he said he will give to each and every designer the footage and he won’t give it to me. He missed a point, I had an agreement with East Winter garden location where the event took place to be in charge, as Industry of beauty, and use the footage only myself. I told him this. He got annoyed. I paid double the amount he asked – £500 – after more than a year of trying to sort out the things in a decent way. In all this time I lost trust in collaboration with the designers involved in the show as I hadn’t released straight away any video, only pictures. Honestly I was stubborn myself but I hoped I can get the footage at the priced agreed, I was also upset that they try to take advantage of me so easily. I’m still upset that I still had to pay double in the end.
Another collaboration I had and failed with was with Elena Harding, a Romanian actress. She was part of Junior project in the same period as Raul Babos – November 2014 – February 2015. I signed a contract with her. In the contract I had a clause where I was to pay her hours worked after the project receives sponsorships from people I was in discussing with at that time. I had about 6 months to finalise some content in order for the Junior project to be presented to the public. We had plenty of discussions about this issue. Elena knew the incident I had with the cameraman Justinian Moga and how important it is to work hard and valorise the potential Junior project gives to the public and to those hired as collaborators. Elena started to put a bit of a pressure after the first module (6 Saturdays) spent at JUNIOR. She sent the first invoice and wanted to be paid straight away as she wanted to go in holiday, in an e-mail saying how hard she worked at Junior with children and she needs to go in holiday. On the 17th of January 2015, together with another person in the project at that time – Melinda Stoica, we had a conversation at the beginning of the 3rd Module and I explained to them again the concept where if us, as a team, don’t create content, our collaboration doesn’t make sense as I can easily carry on with just myself teaching certain things in this project and working within a smaller team. Junior was taking its first step to expansion at that point. I wanted to create more and faster. I told them that they need patience and involvement, if they understand this, I can carry on with my plans in attraction of investment and sponsorships.
On the 15th of February, Elena Harding was asking me to take part in my fashion show as a model (as it was her dream to do modelling). She was extremely happy one of our international talented designers from Romania was the guest star – Catalin Botezatu. She was paid for that day, as Industry of beauty had another budget with no link to Junior.
After this fashion show, the classes at the 3rd Module at Junior (with Raul Babos, Elena Harding and Melisa Stoica involved at that time) seemed a bit tensioned. I find out later the reason – Justinian Moga was attending uninvited the fashion show I organised and he started to whisper to Melinda Stoica (who was involved in presenting the show with me), Elena Harding (who was modelling) and Raul Babos (who was filming) that I won’t pay them, that I owe him big amount of money and I am not a serious person.
The 3rd Module finished on the 7th of March 2015. At that time I found out I am pregnant. I was very happy. The Module finished and I told them (Elena Harding and Melinda Stoica) that I will make the best possible to pay their work even though no sponsorship was received at that point. All I needed was a bit of patience.
At the end of March 2015, I received an email from Elena Harding telling me that she will sue me to get the money from me. Which the shock after this email and after the news that a lawyer was hired by Justinian Moga, Elena Harding and Melinda Stoica to recuperate their money caused me a haemorrhage and I had a few days later a miscarriage.
Melinda Stoica was part of Junior project from June 2014 until March 2015. She was involved in 3 Modules from which she got paid only one Module. With her I had many talks and plans for futures, she seemed like she understood the concept and the patience required. For the Module 1 – which was taking place in June-July 2014 she got the payment in her account on January 2015. All this time she mentioned how important this project is for Romanian community and that the involvement of her few hours Saturdays will make her happy. In the end, she said, she knew I am an honest person and I do things as I say.
From May 2015 I had my own equipment for filming and I hired people to make use of the camera. Everything went according to my plans at JUNIOR. I collaborated with some people I paid based on the new contracts I had into place where I decided to eliminate the clause of the sponsorship. At that point I realised even if they said they care about the project, most of them wanted only money and to make use of the opportunity, no real passion involved. I became more cautious because all I wanted was to have a great and real project for children into place.
On the 5th of February 2016 I hired Marian Catalin Stanciu (called also Pustiu at Prima TV, a national TV channel in Romania where he worked). He is cameraman. At that point Junior went to another level and I wanted to make it grow again as I had many children wanting to enrol at the school of television. He asked for a salary of £1500/month, full time, 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. He worked first 2 weeks and the amount of money earned were supposed to get them at the end of our collaboration if he respected the intern rules and did his job properly. His first salary, a month worth was paid in full. On the 5th of April I let him go because I was unhappy with certain things he done wrong when I was on maternity leave.
As I was saying previously I had a miscarriage in March – beginning of April 2015. Soon after, in August 2015 I found out I was pregnant again. I was due March 2016. In that period I was deciding to have my 2nd edition of the Industry of beauty fashion event on the 13th of February 2016. I postponed it, as I was not able to carry on with the pressure of organising, for 21st of May 2016. I gave birth to a little girl on the 20th of March 2016. I decided to postpone the event until the 8th of October 2016.
In July 2015 children from Junior International TV project were invited to join Industry of beauty event, 2nd edition were the designers from Industry of beauty were creating with each of them an unique concept of item every child was supposed to present on the catwalk and own it after the show. For the production of this garment, promotion, participating in the fashion event the parents were charged a fee of £250. Many of them joined and they were happy their children will be on the catwalk. It was a lot of excitement. We started to create, some of the parents paid on time, some made long delays in payment, over all I understood them all and I accepted to do the best and let the children enjoy their own creation. We had many, many hours of meetings and, in the end, the whole collection concept was eventually ready on the paper. We started production, those monies from the fee were to cover the expenses (material, pattern, production, promotion). Some of the children wanted to create items for their mums to modelling with them on the catwalk. I gave them all the freedom. I was happy that the children were enthusiastic.
When the event was postponed from May to October 2016, one mother (Camelia Rachovan) started to gossip telling the other mothers that she doesn’t think the fashion event takes place anymore and no collection was done and I used the money for my own personal interest. When I postponed the event, I assured them that the collection is ready, that the fitting will be rescheduled and that the event is postponed not cancelled. The reasons of postponing were to do with my health situation but now I am completely recovered and ready to do a great event after all of this.
All the mothers with children that enrolled in JUNIOR FASHION COLLECTION wanted their money back from the fee, telling me that they don’t trust anymore. I got really offended because they have all gave birth, they know what pregnancy is and also the collection was ready, the fees they paid were invested already. They told me they don’t trust me anymore. The argument started in May 2016, the pressure of postponing the event was high. Many gossips started from one woman inside of the group. All the children that were involved in fashion were excluded from both Junior and Industry of beauty. There were in total 17 people. Some with parents involved in the catwalk with an item, some not.
When I was in maternity, back in March and beginning of April 2016, I left the studio in my assistant hands (Adelina Salomia with whom I collaborating fine for 1 year May 2015-April 2016) and in the cameraman’s hand (Marian Catalin Stanciu, “Pustiu”). The rhythm of work went slower than the initial speed I had it before leaving for maternity. The cameraman was making sexual advances to my assistant and spent a lot of time with jokes in an un-appropriate way at work. I found out later from another collaborator (Diana Babeanu) that she saw them kissing in the studio (I can’t say this is true or not), this is what I was told before the scandal started.
The cameraman Marian Catalin Pustiu made a friendship with Camelia Rachovan – a mother who had her child enrolled at Junior for longer than 2 years. In Junior she had the opportunity to see her child appearing on the national television I had a partnership with – PRIMA TV. Her child made a lot of progress in Junior project even if Camelia Rachovan made an untrue declaration to the newspaper which defamed me – Ziarul Romanesc – that her child learned nothing and I was “selling” her and to other parents lies all this time. I can prove the amount of projects we had and this child called Delia Ulici was part of them all the time.
From March 2016 I was subletting in my studio premises an office to an acquaintance called Elena Rees who had a consultancy company. At that time she hired Camelia Rachovan at her company which meant that they all were around – the cameraman Marian Catalin Stanciu, and my assistant Adelina Salomia. On the 5th of April, in the day when I let go the cameraman, I had a problem with my studio, I couldn’t get into the premises. Adelina Salomia, my assistant was coming to work but because of this issue, not being able to access the studio, I told her she can have a day off and be paid for it. She said she will stay until I sort out the problem.
Few days before this moment, the cameraman asked me for a day off, exactly on the 5th of April, with the excuse he has to film another event. I told him no, as we were supposed to be working and I needed him on that day. He knew that he hadn’t signed with me an exclusivity contract, after his working hours he could do whatever he wanted. All I wanted from him was not to be involved in anything which can bring harm to the image of Junior. All the rest was his business. He insisted to be off on that day, 5th of April. He came to work with the thought to get his camera and convince me to let him off that day. When he was reaching the reception of the building I was there discussing with the management of the building. Coincidence or not, he arrived together with Adelina Salomia, motivating that they met at the train station and together with them was Diana Babeanu, a collaborator I had for a short while (from 25th of March 2016 until middle of April – she was recommended by the cameraman Marian Catalin Stanciu). The cameraman wanted his camera as I said and, when he saw that we are not allowed in the studio, he got all furious and panicked and started to argue with me saying that he needed his camera. I assured him that in couple of hours the problem at the studio will be sorted and we can carry on our work for that day. He insisted to get his camera. At that point I started to be very upset with this situation. His attitude was not appropriate. All my collaborators – Adelina Salomia, Marian Catalin Stanciu and Diana Babeanu were waiting for me to come back to the location as I told them I will be away to sort out the problem.
In the meantime, the cameraman asked my assistant to insist with the reception and allow him inside of the studio to get his camera (he doesn’t speak good English). She was following his insistence and in the end they entered on the premises without me being there and got the camera. I was away from the building, but I called my assistant to inform her that the problem will be sorted when I arrive (I was an hour away) and we can carry on with the day as I said initially. I ensured them all that the day will be paid even if we spent few hours waiting to enter in the studio and we couldn’t do our work properly. When I called the assistant she told me that she begged the receptionist to allow her in to pick the camera which I found at that time extremely bad as she was undermining me. On the phone I told her that she is sacked together with the cameraman. Later on I found out that the cameraman was picked up by Camelia Rachovan by car in that day to go and film an event he wanted to film anyway in the day of work paid by me. I found it outrageous and disrespectful. The event was organised by Elena Rees.
Elena Rees told me at that time that she doesn’t want to hire my office anymore as soon as she found out Adelina Salomia and Marian Catalin Stanciu were sacked by me. I also found out later that they had many other plans together including stealing information from the Junior project and organising events with children identical to what we did at Junior. At Junior we had a calendar with events for the whole year and, from inside, Camelia Rachovan, Adelina Salomia, Marian Catalin Stanciu knew the whole details of this.
In the newspaper another person is mentioned – Corneliu Ghetu. My link with him is related with an event I organised on the 6th of December 2015 at his Restaurant in London (Cornelius Restaurant). He had at that time his girl enrolled at JUNIOR school. We had there our 2nd edition of a theatre show called “Casuta de poveste” (House of stories). I made a verbal deal with him where I advertised for free the event taking place in his premises. The ticket paid for by the public was to cover a meal (£20/adult and £15/child). Our agreement consisted in spending £5/each ticket sold for gifts for all the children attending. We had 66 children attending the show and about 87 adults. At the event date I came in with presents for children all labelled and wrapped according to the plan. I also gave him in advance the lists with people attending the show and the amount of meals him and his team had to prepare. He was supposed to invoice me after the day was complete. The show started at 2 pm. I told him I need to come at least 2 hours earlier in order for the set up to be done. My future father in-law gave me a lift with all the bags with presents and I stored them in his restaurant. The presents were hidden on the terrace as I asked. I asked him for the presents to be covered in order for the children not to see them when they have their rehearsals on the terrace. That terrace had a CCTV as well which I found safe as many children were around. The event started with the owner bringing out the food straight away although I asked him to serve the food after the show which was going to take no longer than 45 minutes. I told him is ridiculous children to be on stage performing and parents to sit at the table eating, it made sense to eat after the performance all together. Corneliu, the owner, ignored completely what I said, he put out the starters and some heavy drink for parents (called Palinca – this drink is 40% strong and people get drunk quickly). I felt very sad and annoyed as all the waiters were concerned with the food and there was so much noise and movement right when the show had to start. At that point everybody was more concerned about the food instead of the show. I went again to ask them to stop serving food as this was ridiculous. Nothing was changed, we had to have the show in those conditions. All of the performance was average because of many problems with people constantly moving. At the end, my assistant was bringing out bags with presents. I was the presenter and, in the end of the performance I called their names to give them the presents. Towards the end my assistant said we are running low for presents. I look at her and I told her that is impossible as each and every child had a present with their name wrote on it. There were 9 children in the end of the show who were waiting for presents. I had to stop the presenting and go to the back terrace and check myself. That group of children were crying as they know, if they don’t get presents that meant that they were naughty (which is something that no child should ever feel). The rest of presents were missing. So I went straight away to the owner to tell him that something has happened and he started to be very annoyed and to shout at me that in his restaurant nobody is stealing. I told him that I am not accusing his staff but the fact remains that presents have gone missing and that we need to find out who is responsible. The event had all but been ruined with children crying due to the fact that there is no present for them and parents now starting to argue the fact that there were no present for their child (this is where having Palinca involved does not help at all). As I knew there was a CCTV I believed we will find the truth. I asked Cornelius to show me the footage on the same day and he said to come back tomorrow as he had clients (I was a client myself and he was supposed to get a considerable amount of money that evening). I told him I am not sure I will be able to come next day, as I had something else in my agenda but I asked him to record on a USB the whole footage of the show and he said ok. I came back after 3 days and to my surprise, no footage was recorded. I told him is not my problem, I want the footage as he assured he will give to me in order to solve the problem of the presents. There was a huge image damage after the event as many of the mothers coming to the show were writing very bad reviews about JUNIOR and the show, all together, the restaurant was exempt of the bad comment as the owner was smart enough to get them drunk. Cornelius said that he made his part of the agreement and he provided the food. The show was NOT about the food, the show was about the children and the celebration of St Nicholas, the food was supposed to be at the end and no heavy alcohol during the show, as I asked. I had to write an email to all the people attending the show apologising about the inconveniences and the presents missing and to offer them all a free month course at JUNIOR as a way of making it up to them. In January, 4 children attended for free the classes in JUNIOR which meant a loss of £400. The show in December was meant to create visibility for the project (and probably to have more children enrolled and bring more clients to Cornelius). That was what the agreement was set in place for. When I had the issue with the presents and when I saw the owner of the restaurant was so superficial in sorting out my problem, I decided not to pay until the footage is in my hands. I also wanted to call the Police. I couldn’t believe the footage was not available. He had to be responsable for everything happened on his premises. He damaged my image therefor I refused to pay.
His wife (Lacramioara Savut), as she had their daughter enrolled at JUNOIR, was involved in the fashion project as well. After the incident and the refusal in sorting out this important issue, they started to make a lot of noise telling everybody I owe them money and draging down my name and denigrating me. The amount of bad things said about JUNIOR project were huge.
In July I found out that many of the people from JUNIOR (those who started the scandal and who declaired at the newspaper things about me and the project) are using many of the internal information (which was supposed to be confidential, some of them also signed an agreement for that) for other events almost identical with Junior events!
To be continued…
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