Rise Project - Horațiu Potra collected nearly eight million dollars over three years to protect the economic interests of the Chinese Communist Party in Africa. The Romanian mercenary received the money through an offshore company in Malta, which conducted transactions from the spring of 2015 until the spring of 2018.
- During the same period, Potra and his brigade guarded mines, construction sites, and logistical outposts in Sierra Leone for the Chinese metallurgical giant Shandong Steel.
- From these transactions, Horațiu Potra redistributed over 3.5 million dollars through three channels: personal accounts, another offshore company in Panama, and a West African company.
- He was introduced to Chinese corporations by Frank Timiș, the founder of the notorious “Roșia Montană” business—one of the most corrupt schemes involving Romania’s natural resources.
- The Maltese offshore account was exposed when Potra had a falling out with his own intermediary in the company. Their disputes led to legal battles in Romania, and financial documents submitted to the case files ended up in the possession of Captura and RISE Project reporters.
- Over the years, Horațiu Potra has been involved in various controversies and recently returned to public attention due to his connections with far-right politician Călin Georgescu.
- He is also nicknamed the “Romanian Prigozhin” due to his mercenary business, which has recruited hundreds of gendarmes, police officers, military personnel from the Ministry of Defense (MApN), intelligence officers from SRI, and SPP (Protection and Guard Service) agents.
Where the money came from
Between 2012 and 2018, Horațiu Potra worked for three years for Frank Timiș and another three years for a major Chinese corporation. Passed between employers along with the African mines he was guarding, Potra handled millions of dollars in transactions over these six years.
When he was hired in April 2012, Horațiu Potra’s business card stated that he was the security director at African Minerals Limited (AML), a London-based company around which Timiș had structured his mining holding with operations in West Africa.
Frank Timiș. Source: Mediafax Foto
A former British colony, Sierra Leone occupies an area three times smaller than Romania on the African coast of the Atlantic Ocean and is rich in minerals.
The deposits here have become famous mainly for their diamond potential, but the soil also holds impressive quantities of gold, iron, rutile, and bauxite. Nowadays, even heavy metals like lithium, essential for new technologies, are being extracted.
However, this El Dorado has caused political instability and suffering for the local population, painting in red the African paradox of resource-rich countries inhabited by poor people.
The diamond mines in the south of the country were at the center of a bloody civil war that lasted 11 years (1991–2002) and claimed over 50,000 lives. Beyond the atrocities and mass executions that shocked the world in the 1990s, the conflict led to the international regulation of the diamond trade (Kimberley Process Certification) because war-driven trafficking was financing terrorist organizations in the Middle East and North Africa.
When the guns fell silent, institutionalized corruption remained in power, dominating a series of exploitative deals involving the country’s mineral resources.
In the first decade of peace, mining accounted for 80% of Sierra Leone’s exports (with diamonds making up half of that), but poverty became chronic. Only a small political elite and the mining companies—who extracted much but paid little—prospered.
In 2004, through a dramatic turn of events, Frank Timiș took over a local fraudulent scheme involving multiple diamond concessions from associates of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the winner of the civil war (who passed away in 2014).
The transaction handed Timiș valuable deposits in the country and secured him a useful alliance in the capital, Freetown.
Listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), shares of the African Minerals group saw moderate growth until 2010 when their value suddenly tripled. At that time, Timiș struck another major deal in Sierra Leone, announcing the discovery of a massive magnetite deposit in Tonkolili, a central district home to Africa’s second-largest iron mine. The total estimated ore reserves were 11.9 billion tons, with an operational period projected at 60 years.
In August 2010, Frank Timiș signed a mining agreement with the government of Sierra Leone, granting him the right to exploit the Tonkolili deposits while paying minimal royalties.
The prospects of this project, combined with a favorable political environment on the ground, created the perfect conditions for attracting major funding from the London capital market and gaining entry into the ranks of the world’s leading raw material suppliers. As a result, the Romanian millionaire focused entirely on the Tonkolili mines, betting everything on this venture.
The business truly took off when Timiș’s scheme in Sierra Leone caught the attention of Chinese corporations, which were then aggressively expanding their economic presence in Africa.
The first step was taken by China Railway Materials Commercial Corporation, a state-controlled company, which acquired a significant stake in AML (12.3%).
However, Beijing was particularly interested in the iron ore deposits, and in September 2011, the state-owned metallurgical giant Shandong Iron and Steel Group (SISG) purchased a quarter of the project. Specifically, they acquired 25% of the shares in Tonkolili Iron Ore Ltd, the local subsidiary through which AML managed large-scale mining operations in the country’s central region.
“Our partnership provides African Minerals shareholders with significant project funding, accelerating its delivery and ensuring SISG a long-term supply of iron ore (…)”
Frank Timiș, in an interview for Global Infrastructure Magazine
The total capitalization announced by the Chinese in Timiș’s holding—$1.5 billion—strongly boosted the entire business in Sierra Leone, including on London’s alternative stock market.
The infusion was intended to develop, in three phases, the necessary infrastructure for transporting ore from Tonkolili via a new railway to Chinese-flagged cargo ships anchored in Port Loko, where even the port facilities were to be built.
All of this kicked off at full speed, making AML the largest employer in Sierra Leone. Local media reported that over 10,000 people were working for the company at the time.
The integrated system the Chinese needed to extract the ore and transport it to the ocean turned much of the country into a construction site, while the expansion of mining operations led to the displacement of indigenous populations.
Social unrest was inevitable, but Timiș’s political influence in the host country was at its peak, as he was connected to both major parties in Sierra Leone (APC & SLPP).
By 2012, when Horațiu Potra took over security management, AML was already in its boom phase. The company’s shares had reached record highs on the stock market, and Frank Timiș appeared on Forbes’ millionaire list with an estimated fortune of $1.1 billion. He was considered the richest Romanian by economic media in Bucharest and had purchased two luxury jets (Bombardier Challenger 604).
Meanwhile, the Tonkolili mines were operating at full capacity under Chinese financial backing, and convoys of heavy machinery kicked up red dust on Sierra Leone’s battered roads as they moved between various logistical points.
The local people regarded the large-scale operations with a mix of fear and respect. Most had a relative or a friend working for the company, either in the mines or on infrastructure projects, earning monthly wages of up to $50. With that amount, a local could barely afford to step into the few grocery stores in Freetown, which were meant for expats and the elite. In other words, $50 was roughly the price a tourist would pay for a single night in a relatively decent guesthouse.
At some point, however, Frank Timiș’s prosperous period began to fade. An Ebola epidemic that paralyzed the country and fluctuations in the price of iron extracted from Tonkolili severely reduced his working capital, ultimately bringing the operation to a halt in December 2014. That was the moment when his Chinese partners “eliminated” him.
In other words, they executed a $170 million debt that Timiș was unable to repay and for which he had pledged the remaining 75% of the shares in the Tonkolili subsidiary. The businessman was effectively removed from his flagship project. The full takeover was formally completed in April 2015.
But Horațiu Potra remained. Over the next three years, the mercenary earned more than $8 million through his offshore company in Malta for security services provided to the new owners in Sierra Leone.
Shandong Iron and Steel Group continued drilling in Tonkolili until 2019, when it was replaced by another Chinese corporation, Kingho Mining Group.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone aligned itself with other African countries that had entered Beijing’s economic sphere, securing multiple loans from Chinese banks.
For the Asian superpower, Frank Timiș served as a sort of Trojan horse in the presidential palace in Freetown—just as Timiș was the one who opened the door for Horațiu Potra to secure lucrative contracts with Chinese state-owned companies.
Open-pit mining operation. Source: Mediafax Photo/Hepta
Since it has immense production capacities, China’s industry requires just as many raw materials to maintain its supply chains.
As a result, African markets have become key geopolitical targets for the Chinese Communist Party, which has massively increased its influence there over the past two decades.
By 2020, Chinese factories were consuming a third of all minerals and metals exported from Africa, while Chinese construction companies were managing dozens of African infrastructure contracts. Beijing’s investments on the continent had already reached approximately $155 billion by 2024.
Over time, from being Africa’s largest trading partner, China also became its primary creditor, gaining access to an increasing number of natural resources. Carefully constructed, China’s economic offensive has gradually led to monopolies on strategic raw materials and their international distribution networks.
A case study is cobalt, a metal essential for the automotive and military industries, used in the production of electric batteries, aerospace alloys, smart munitions, and crude oil refining. Out of the 10 largest cobalt mines in the world, nine are located in the Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with half of them operated by Chinese corporations. 80% of the world’s cobalt production is extracted here and transported via infrastructure also built by the Chinese, through Zambia and Tanzania, to the Indian Ocean.
The government in Kinshasa—the same one for which Horațiu Potra supplied military instructors and mercenaries to suppress rebel militias in the east of the country—recently extended the concession agreement for cobalt mines to the Chinese. In this context, the stability of the DRC is a vital interest for Beijing.
What exactly did Potra do for work, and for whom?
As a security manager, Horațiu Potra held a top position in the mining conglomerate founded by Timiș. He was practically everywhere.
When he got the job, the Romanian mercenary moved his residence to London, on 61 Walton Street, a bohemian Victorian-style street connecting the Chelsea district to Westminster.
From there, navigating London traffic, Potra could reach his office in just 10 minutes. The headquarters of the African Minerals (AML) group was nearby, at 5 Stratton Street, right in the heart of the British metropolis.
The images below, showing Potra behind the wheel of a limousine, were captured by our reporters in February 2013, near an entrance to the business wing of the Stratton House building—a luxurious business center that housed AML’s offices at the time, located at the intersection with London’s busiest boulevard, Piccadilly.
Potra’s responsibilities in the company involved the security of personnel, logistics, and transportation.
However, Frank Timiș took up most of his time. The former soldier became the boss’s shadow and a courier for key figures in Timiș’s circle. He accompanied Timiș almost everywhere—in the London headquarters, on business trips, or at family events.
They were filmed together in Romania at Timiș’s mother’s funeral in June 2012, after arriving on a private jet at Baia Mare airport. At that time, Potra was newly hired.
Business flights between the United Kingdom and West Africa were also a routine part of Horațiu Potra’s work at African Minerals. Most of them led to Sierra Leone, the group’s main base of operations.
Potra primarily used his French passport for these trips, according to data from the UK Border Police system, and the jets chartered by the holding company frequently landed with him on board at Lungi Airport in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Travel documents (GenDec) also reveal his entourage.
When he wasn’t escorting Timiș—who used his Australian passport—Potra accompanied company employees, contractors, or shareholder representatives to Africa, such as Mr. Yaowei Wang, former head of the import department at the Shandong Steel consortium.
However, ensuring personal security was not the real challenge in Sierra Leone—guarding the logistical hubs was. Potra had to deal with the lack of basic infrastructure.
Robberies remained the main threat looming over the map of storage facilities and equipment yards, and operations moved slowly due to poor infrastructure—roads there were unpaved and turned to mud during the rainy season. Additionally, the infrastructure projects launched by the Chinese to connect the mines to the port further complicated the situation. Hundreds of machines and thousands of tons of materials, placed deep within mining territories, had to be guarded at gunpoint.
The security solution involved a few massive, fenced, and well-guarded logistical bases, where fuel tanks took up the most space.
Fuel theft was the primary concern. Diesel is the “lifeblood” of Africa, where electricity is absent in most rural areas. AML consumed vast amounts, relying on hundreds of generators that devoured tons of fuel. Without supplies, entire segments of operations would grind to a halt.
Potra brought a brigade of Romanians to Sierra Leone, some of whom he had personally trained in Mediaș, and formed mixed teams with trusted locals. A large part of his job involved coordinating these small units that guarded the company’s logistical outposts or escorted its transports.
The expertise he gained on the ground was enough for the Chinese to consider Horațiu Potra indispensable, even after they pushed Frank Timiș out of the business. Beijing’s corporations would go on to funnel millions into the Romanian mercenary.
The business and the profits
Potra received the money through an offshore company in Malta (AO Futuro Ltd), from where he redirected it into other personal accounts. The mailbox company was established in October 2014, when Frank Timiș had already begun his decline in Sierra Leone, and it remained operational throughout the period in which Potra later worked for the Chinese (April 2015 – April 2018).
In the Maltese records, a Romanian woman appears as an intermediary, associated with Horațiu Potra in several businesses in Mediaș. She also managed the offshore entity’s account, which was opened at a Romanian bank.
Approximately 80% of the funds came from the Chinese corporation Shandong Steel, through its two subsidiaries in Sierra Leone that had been taken over from Frank Timiș (Tonkolili Iron Ore Ltd and African Railway and Port Services Ltd). The first managed the iron and magnetite mines in Sierra Leone, while the other handled infrastructure. Together, they spent nearly eight million dollars in collaboration with the mercenary.
Frank Timiș’s companies also made payments to Potra during the three years he primarily worked for the Chinese, but the amount accounted for only about 20% of his total earnings.
From the revenues through the Maltese channel, over $3.5 million represents the amount redistributed by Potra to two other offshore companies he owned or to his personal account between 2015 and 2018.
What Potra Says About the Transactions
We asked Horațiu Potra about the financial operations conducted through the Maltese entity, why he chose this method, and whether he paid taxes in any fiscal jurisdiction for the $3.5 million he redistributed. His response was as follows:
“What’s your problem with me earning money abroad and spending it in Romania?! You’d be better off investigating those who steal and send the people’s money out of the country—money that probably pays you, the anti-Romanian press! Thanks!”
Horațiu Potra
The former Legionnaire’s transactions, however, involve his companies in Panama and Sierra Leone, to which he systematically transferred money received from the Chinese. But Potra argues that this doesn’t really matter, since the transactions only involved Romanian banks:
“The money was sent to accounts of companies registered in Romania. So, the money stayed in Romania; it didn’t go anywhere abroad. It’s one thing to bring money into the country, and another to steal it and send it offshore. You know very well that I haven’t earned a single penny in Romania (…) but now you have orders from above to put me in a bad light, obviously with another target in mind, because I’m not necessarily the one being aimed at.”
As of the time this article was published, neither businessman Frank Timiș nor the Chinese consortium Shandong Steel had responded to our inquiries.
The woman behind the mercenary
The person who covered for Horațiu Potra in the offshore company in Malta, where he received money from the Chinese, is a businesswoman from Mediaș. Her name is Maria Tătar, and she co-owns properties with Potra.
The mercenary and Ms. Tătar had a long-standing relationship of trust, investing together in real estate. Typically, she managed their shared finances and represented him in various transactions. She was even authorized on Potra’s personal accounts and provided him with several blank-signed documents (a method often used by hidden business beneficiaries to control intermediaries).
However, Maria Tătar does not want to speak to the press. When we first tried to contact her, she snapped: “I recently closed the company in Malta and had to pay a lot of money to the tax authorities there. My name was on it, so I was responsible! It was a stupid decision, and I don’t want to know anything about it anymore. I have no comment on this matter (…) Yes, the city is small, I’ve known Potra for a long time.”
Still, Tătar shared more details with the police after her collaboration with Potra took a serious turn for the worse. Despite having handled millions together through their African dealings, they are now battling in court over a few hundred thousand dollars. We have reviewed the case documents.
The disagreements began to surface in the summer of 2020, and by the following year, they were already filing criminal complaints against each other. The root of their conflict is linked to an incident from four years ago, which led to a police raid on Potra after he threatened to kidnap the then-director of Romgaz, Adrian Volintiru.
Maria Tătar allegedly even knew where Potra hid his weapons in Mediaș, according to a recording in which the mercenary accused her of reporting him to the police. That conversation was secretly recorded by Potra himself and submitted as evidence in their ongoing legal disputes.
Potra claims that his former associate owes him money based on a loan contract dated 2018, but Maria Tătar disputes the document, arguing that it was forged. Marked by a battle of expert analyses, the case was dismissed by Sibiu prosecutors last autumn.
We attempted to confront Ms. Tătar with the information from the case file, but she remained just as reserved: “Everything I had to say, I stated to the prosecutor’s office. These are fictitious documents. The court is the only place where I expect justice.”
A former Communist Party palace near Cișmigiu – the jewel of Potra’s fortune
Last summer, Horațiu Potra purchased an imposing building on Ionel Perlea Street in Bucharest, which once housed the Palace of the District Committee of the PMR (Romanian Workers’ Party) and later the PCR (Romanian Communist Party).
Located near Cișmigiu Park, the property consists of a 722-square-meter plot of land and a 292-square-meter building with a second floor, an attic, and remarkable neoclassical architecture.
Land registry documents show that Potra still has an outstanding mortgage of nearly $1.2 million owed to the former owner.
This acquisition in the heart of the capital does not appear in the list of 78 plots of land and 29 properties declared in Potra’s asset statement, which he submitted a few months later as a local councilor in the city of Mediaș.
Potra owns dozens of hectares of forest in Cluj, several hectares of farmland in Sibiu and Mureș counties, as well as numerous residential and commercial properties in Mediaș (one co-owned with Maria Tătar). He also owns a house in Bucharest (together with Ana Maria Nedelcu).
His assets further include two luxury cars and 15 kg of gold, valued at approximately 6 million lei. In his bank accounts, he declared amounts in the range of hundreds of thousands of euros, dollars, and lei.
Horațiu Potra. Source: Facebook
Who is Horațiu Potra
Horațiu Potra, 55 years old, began his military experience in the Securitate troops at a unit in Câmpina specialized in transmissions (UM 0865).
After the Revolution, in 1992, he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, where he served for the next five years. Initially sent to the parachute regiment in Calvi, Corsica, he was later assigned to the Legion’s cyber service within the main regiment in Aubagne.
After completing his contract, Potra obtained French citizenship and worked with Paul Barril, the former number two in GIGN, the elite unit of the gendarmerie. Through Barril, he entered the private security contractor market.
Potra’s first clients were from the Middle East, but he quickly shifted to the African continent, where Barril’s network had expertise and was notorious for its involvement in the Rwandan genocide.
By 2003, Potra was training the presidential guard in the Central African Republic. Fifteen years later, in 2017, he returned to Bangui to work at the forefront of the Russian Wagner Group.
His primary advantage now is his extensive network of contacts and relationships built over time across Africa.
Potra was also involved in diamond and arms transactions, as revealed by Rise Project in 2012, after discovering that part of the illicit money was donated to the Romanian Orthodox Church.
In Romania, the mercenary has been arrested three times. The first time was in 2010, when he was accused of drug trafficking, but he only received a sentence for illegal possession of firearms. The police arrested him again in 2020 after he threatened to kidnap the Romgaz director, but he walked free once again after the victim withdrew his complaint. The latest arrest happened in December, when he was stopped in traffic and taken in for questioning on charges of public incitement and illegal possession of weapons.
Potra has established his headquarters in Mediaș, his hometown, where he organizes training camps and has purchased several properties. In the last local elections, he ran for mayor but lost by a narrow margin to the current mayor. However, his party has gained influence in the Local Council.
An open pro-Russian, Potra frequently echoes Kremlin propaganda in his public messages. Over the past five years, he has been active in two nationalist parties in Romania. He supports Călin Georgescu and collaborates with former French Foreign Legion soldiers who provide security for the far-right candidate.
The founder of Roșia Montană Business
The Romanian-Australian Vasile Frank Timiș, 62 years old, fled the country before 1989 and later returned as a businessman to his homeland during the early years of the transition to capitalism.
He quickly struck gold by speculating on foreign stock exchanges with gold, silver, and copper resources from the Apuseni Mountains. The scheme from the mid-1990s reveals how the Romanian state practically helped Timiș take over the exploitation of resources worth billions of dollars for free.
Frank Timiș. Source: Captură video BBC
In short, Timiș signed secret agreements, without public tender, with the state agency responsible for exploring the gold and copper deposits at Roșia Montană and Certej (near Deva). With these agreements in hand, he secured his first funds on the Canadian stock exchange to expand his businesses in Romania.
Then, in the early 2000s, he split the two ventures—Roșia Montană and Certej—and sold them separately, including the licenses for gold, silver, and copper exploitation.
This was essentially the scheme that, until last year, put Romania at risk of paying over $6 billion after the investors who took over the business from Timiș sued the Romanian state in Washington, claiming that their Roșia Montană project had been blocked.
Timiș’s dealings were investigated for years by Romanian prosecutors, but without any consequences. As a result, the Romanian billionaire was able to quietly move his natural resource ventures to the African continent.
Authors: Mihai Munteanu
Contributors: Roxana Jipa
Fact-checking: RISE Project
Article researched in collaboration with Captura
Romana Puiuleț 
Andrei Ciurcanu 
