Iosif Constantin Drăgan

Iosif Constantin Drăgan (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈjosif konstanˈtin drəˈɡan]; June 20, 1917 – August 21, 2008) was a Romanian and Italian businessman, writer, historian and founder of the ButanGas company. In 2005, he was the second-wealthiest Romanian, according to the Romanian financial magazine Capital, having a wealth estimated at $850 million. According to the same financial magazine, in 2006, he became the wealthiest Romanian, at $1.3-1.6 billion.

Drăgan was involved in a series of controversies, including some alleged deals with the Securitate, his admiration of Romanian Fascist leader Ion Antonescu and being one of the main figures in the current of Romanian historiography.

Born in Lugoj, Drăgan graduated from Law School at the University of Bucharest in 1938, and earned in 1940 a scholarship at the University of Rome, where he studied political science and economics, earning a Ph.D. in law. At the time, Drăgan was attracted to fascist ideals and the Iron Guard, representing a corporatist trend inside the latter.

Drăgan explained his views on the Fascist Iron Guard in 1940 in the pro-Mussolini newspaper Conquiste d'Impero in two articles entitled "The Mystique of Codreanu's Legionnaires" and "Romanian Corporatism: Pieces of Legionnaire Doctrine". In 1987, based on these articles, the Italian magazine Il Panorama called him "a Legionnaire", but Drăgan sued them and won the trial, as they were not able to bring a proof that he was an actual member of the organization.

In 1941, he started a company which exported Romanian petroleum products to Fascist Italy. After World War II, in 1948, he established a gas distribution company in Italy, Butan Gas. After the war, with the Romanian Communist Party gaining power in Romania, he was not allowed for 30 years to return to Romania.

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