Bucharest District 1 Mayor Under Arrest for Corruption

Anti-corruption Directorate in Ploiesti held Bucharest District 1 mayor Andrei Chiliman on Thursday night (June 18), after hours of questioning in a corruption case.

They charged him with leading an organized crime group and accessory to influence peddling, according to an official DNA statement, cited by romania-insider.com.

Andrei Chiliman. Photo: enational.ro.

According to the prosecutors, Andrei Chiliman and three other associates used their influence to help some companies get public contracts from the District 1 City Hall in exchange for a fee of 10% to 15% of the contract value.

Some 30% of the money went to Chiliman while his three associates got 15% each and 10% went to Chiliman’s party, according to DNA. The remaining 15% would be used to pay off various other people who had to approve the contracts.

DNA said that Andrei Chiliman and his associates allegedly received some EUR 8.7 million from two companies that got a contract for thermal rehabilitation of blocks in District 1.

Andrei Chiliman is the second district mayor in Bucharest who has been arrested this year, after Marian Vanghelie, the District 5 mayor, who was also charged for corruption.

Read more on romania-insider.com.

PM Ponta under inquiry: The Chamber of Deputies rejects the prosecutors' request

Chamber of Deputies during the vote
for lifting the PM's immunity, June 2015.
Photo: Video Capture.

The Chamber of Deputies voted on Tuesday over the Anti-corruption Agency's request for criminal prosecution of prime minister Victor Ponta.

Mr. Ponta is a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He has been accused of conflict of interest, but in order to start the inquiry, the prosecutors need the Chamber of Deputies's approval.

231 deputies opposed the prosecutors's request, while 120 deputies favored the lifting of Mr. Ponta's immunity.

Before the vote, Victor Ponta said that the MPs should not accept the situation in which a prosecutor could change a prime minister.

An opposition leader, Ludovic Orban, from conservative-liberal party - PNL, said that the rejection of prosecutors's request means a worse image of the Parliament and of the country.

But Mr. Ponta is already under a criminal prosecution for forgery, complicity in tax evasion and money laundering, allegedly commited between 2007 and 2008, when he was an attorney.

Prosecutors say that after Mr. Ponta became prime minister, he appointed a former business partner of his firm law as a member of his cabinet . This is why the prosecutors suspect that Mr. Ponta is in conflict of interest as prime minister.

After the prosecutor's move, Mr. Ponta came under pressure to resign, but he refused.

Romanian PM Victor Ponta under criminal prosecution

UPDATE 2: In a post on his Facebook account, consisted in four phrases each of them ended in an exclamation mark, PM Victor Ponta said that he met president Iohannis and he respects his standpoint, "but I've been appointed by the Parliament and only the Parliament could sack me!"

"I cannot accept that a DNA prosecutor is above Parliament, government and citizens! That would be a dictatorship and after 25 years from 1989 it would be a big mistake for all of us!", said Mr. Ponta on Facebook.

UPDATE 1: President Klaus Iohannis asked for PM resignation.

In a short declaration, Mr. Iohannis said that "the worse think could happen in Romania is a political crisis".

"A prime minister under investigation is an impossible situation for Romania", said president Iohannis.

The president's declaration has been made after a meeting with Mr. Ponta, at Cotroceni Presidential Palace.
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Anti-corruption prosecutors in Romania said in a statement that they put prime minister Victor Ponta under criminal prosecution for forgery, complicity in tax evasion, money laundering and conflict of interest.

The prosecutors claim that between 2007 and 2008, Victor Ponta cashed in 181,439 lei (cca 41,000 euros) from the law firm "Sova and Associates".

The money was meant to cover attorney services from Victor Ponta's law firm and it has been paid out in 17 installments, until the month Victor Ponta became prime minister.

PM Victor Ponta is a suspect in an

anti-corruption file from 2007-2008.

But the prosecutors said that the services was never fulfilled, and Victor Ponta and Dan Sova, a former ministry in Mr. Ponta's cabinets and associate in the law firm "Sova and Associates", tried to make up false evidence of their collaboration.

The prosecutors claim, too, that "Sova and Associates" law firm gave for free to Mr. Ponta a Mitsubishi Lancer car.

Mr. Sova is prosecuted too, and his case has been raised in Senate this week, in a controversial vote.

Mr. Ponta was questioned this morning at DNA's headquarter in Bucharest.

On his way out from the hearings, he said he is "a suspect in Dan Sova's case".

"I am suspect of conflict of interest too, since Dan Sova was member in my cabinets", said the prime minister Victor Ponta.

He didn't answer if he will resign, but he said that the political decisions "are taken in Parliament, not in the DNA headquarter".

DNA - in romanian: Departamentul National Anticoruptie - is a special department of the prosecutors meant to deal with high level corruption in administration.

Adviser to Bucharest Mayor, Arrested for Bribery

An adviser to Bucharest Mayor has been arrested when he got bribed by a denouncer businessman.

According to a judiciary press release, quoted by the news agency Mediafax, Wigler Solomon has been caught taking 25,000 euros on Wednesday evening from a businessman.

The same source said that the businessman claimed that between 2012 and 2015, he paid over 200,000 euros as bribery to Mr. Solomon.

The bribery was supposed to facilitate the local council's approval of the construction of three supermarkets in the Romanian capital Bucharest.

Mr. Solomon couldn't be contacted for comment.

Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu.
Photo Credit: jurnalul.ro

Local media said that the denouncer businessman is associated with a company which develops some projects with the German food chain Kaufland.

In a press release, the Bucharest City Hall said that Mr. Solomon has been suspended from the office.

Wigler Solomon is a "personal adviser" to Mr. Sorin Oprescu, Mayor of Bucharest.

According to Mediafax, Wigler Solomon's wealth statement for the year 2013 stated that the mayor's adviser had 65,000 square meter domain in Popesti-Leordeni, near Bucharest, two houses and an apartment in Bucharest, three BMW and Audi cars, watches, jewelry and works of art worth 1.9 ml. euros.

President Iohannis Says He Is Dissapointed by "This Majority in Parliament"

President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday that the Parliament "continues to obstruct the justice".

In a post on his Facebook account, he said "it is harder and harder to work with this Parliament".

The reaction comes after the Parliament opposed to the request by the anti-corruption prosecutors who asked for the arrest of the coalition member senator and former minister Dan Sova.

This is the second time the Senate rejects the same request concernig SDP senator Sova. This time the request has been approved by 66 senators, but rejected by 72 senators.

SDP Senator Dan Sova.

Senator Dan Sova is under prosecution for abuse of office. But he cannot be arrested without the Senate's approval.

The conservative opposition condemned the vote in Parliament.

Before the vote in the Senate, the prime minister Victor Ponta said "it is not about the justice, but a political battle".

The former president Traian Basescu has said that SDP-dominated Parliament's vote was not fair.

"If we are talking about someone who knows certain things about the SDP president Victor Ponta, then we get this kind of result", Basescu has said.