Corruption accusations BAE Systems, one of the donors to Princess Margareta's charity, and its representatives, have been involved in a corruption scandal regarding the purchase by the Romanian Government of two decommissioned UK
Royal Navy frigates refurbished by BAE, for which an alleged £7 million bribe was paid. Some of this money, it is also alleged, "ended up in the pockets of the
royal family of Hohenzollern". The
Gardianul newspaper, noting that both Margarita and Radu, as Special Representative of the Government, had met a number of times formally or informally with the BAE Systems representatives before and after the signing of the governmental contract, inquired whether the royal family was involved in any lobbying on behalf of the company. In an official communique sent to the newspaper, for having been an informer for
Communist Romania's dreaded
Securitate, the
secret police, during
Nicolae Ceaușescu's dictatorship.
Căminul românesc magazine from
Geneva published an article by Nicolette (Nicoleta) Franck, a journalist close to King Michael, about whom she wrote many books. The article alleged that Radu Duda was a
Securitate agent infiltrated in the Royal House so as to compromise it, on orders from
Ion Iliescu, the former high ranking Communist who served as
President of Romania and was, allegedly, a friend of Radu's father, also a former high ranking Communist. No proof of these allegations was offered. In an article published by the
Adevărul daily, Radu denied allegations of his supposed involvement with the
Securitate: "I have not collaborated with the
Securitate…in 1986 there was an attempt to recruit me. I refused politely and I was never contacted again." The article revealed that in 1989 Radu's name was found on a list of 1,000+ people entitled "support persons" of the
Securitate. In another interview for the same daily, Radu explained that in 1986 he had been asked by the
Securitate to collaborate due to his successful career as an actor: "Everybody who was somebody knew that there was this risk" to be called upon by
Securitate to become an informer. At that time Radu had been working on an
Iași stage as a theatre graduate for two years and was about to go on his second and last theatre tour abroad to
Israel, accompanying two renowned Romanian actors. The former head of the local Iași branch of the
Securitate explained in an interview that a "support person" such as Duda and the other people on the 1,000+ list were not informers, did not sign any agreement with the
Securitate, nor did they receive money, but were Communist Party members, in particular people who traveled abroad, targeted by the
Securitate with the Party's approval to carry out well-defined missions for a limited period of time. He also confirmed in a subsequent interview that the list in question is real. It has also been reported that "many of the royal family's supporters have stopped offering financial aids after Radu Duda joined the Royal House. Wealthy Romanians in exile, who have been surveyed by the communist era political police
Securitate even in subway stations, considered the compromise as intolerable." In 2005 Radu sued Marco Houston and Sena Julia Publications, the publishers of
Royalty Magazine. The case arose due to an article that was published in the magazine in 2004. On 15 July 2010, Radu obtained a Statement in Open Court from Marco Houston, editor of
Royalty Magazine, acknowledging that all the accusations were untrue, that Radu was never a member or collaborator of the
Securitate, and that this should never have been published. The statement also confirmed that the Collegium of the National Council for the Study of the
Securitate Archives has found Prince Radu did not support in any way the
Securitate.
Princely title On 1 January 1999,
Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern, granted Radu an
ad personam title of "Prince of Hohenzollern-Veringen" (
German:
Prinz von Hohenzollern-Veringen). In August 2004, representatives of Friedrich Wilhelm's eldest son
Karl Friedrich, Hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern, accused Radu of using the
Hohenzollern name without permission as well as of having demanded "considerable" sums of money from whoever may be interested in buying it. have contested the legality of Radu's rapid rise in the
Romanian Army from a reserve lieutenant (
locotenent-major in Romanian) to the rank of active
colonel in much less time than that prescribed for ordinary advancements. The former Chief of Army Staff has argued that his activation was done at Radu's own request, while his promotion was granted for "extraordinary" merits, such as Radu's lobby for Romania's admission into NATO. Radu's official response argues, however, that his own activation was not as a result of any unilateral request, but of a joint request of both the Royal House and the Defence Ministry. ==Political support==