New Corruption Investigations

Comparable only with the operation “Clean Hands” carried out in 1990s Italy, when prosecutors cleansed a large part of the highly corrupted political class in Rome, the offensive of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate against white collar crime in Romania is now hitting the power and the opposition alike, current and former ministers, MPs, mayors, prominent figures in Bucharest and local tycoons.

In one of the most resounding cases this autumn, the High Court of Cassation and Justice has decided to place in temporary custody the out-going vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, Social Democrat Viorel Hrebenciuc.

One of the most influential representatives of the left wing in Romania, Hrebenciuc is now suspected of involvement, alongside other party colleagues, magistrates and his own son, in the illegal return of dozens of thousand of hectares of forest and farm land.

According to the Anti-Corruption Directorate, that move caused the budget of the National Forestry Authority, Romsilva, to lose over 300 million Euro.

What is striking in this affair is that it covers almost the entire political spectrum in Romania.

A textbook example of how to steal without any ethnic or ideological bias, the case brings together representatives of the post-communist left, including Senator Ilie Sarbu, the father in law of the current Prime Minister and presidential candidate Victor Ponta, ethnic Hungarian judges and members of the royal family and the interwar far right.

Among the beneficiaries of such illegal returns of property is Prince Paul, an illegitimate son of King Carol 2nd, whose child was christened by president Traian Basescu himself, and Paltin Sturdza, whose grandfather and father were Foreign Minister and Prefect of Iasi respectively, in the short-lived far-right government of 1940-1941.

For a long time accused of being a gadget used by President Basescu to annihilate his opponents, the National Anti-Corruption Directorate is now striking within the president’s inner circle.

This summer prosecutors sent his younger brother to jail, for influence peddling, and now some of his political or financial allies, suspected of playing as intermediaries in the procurement of IT licenses for schools in exchange for millions of Euros, are being held in custody pending investigation.

Among them the former Liberal Democratic Minister of Communications, Gabriel Sandu, the Mayor of Piatra Neamt, Gheorghe Stefan, best known as president of the local football club, as well as business people and sponsors of the president’s election campaign, such as Nicolae Dumitru and Dorin Cocos.

The latter was until last year the husband of Elena Udrea, president of the People’s Movement Party and a presidential candidate, whom the current president has repeatedly said he would like to see as his successor.