Aristotel Cancescu, the former president of Brasov County Council, was placed under preventive arrest on bribery and abuse of office charges.

Two other people are to spend the next 30 days in jail in the same case, namely former senator Sebastian Grapa and former county councilor Gavril Matei. They are both charged with bribery and complicity to abuse of office.

Another former county councilor, Claudiu Cornea, was placed under house arrest. However, the Brasov Court’s decisions in this case are not final, and can be challenged.

The investigation also targets several other people such as Sabin Adrian Neag – county councilor and company manager at the time of the facts, Cristinel Paltin – mayor of Sercaia commune, and county councilors Olimpiu Valentin Soneriu, Ovidiu Razvan Sandru, Vasile Ungureanu, and Romulus Dragos Craciun. They are all investigated under judicial control on charges such as bribery, abuse of office, and complicity to abuse of office.

Prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Department (DNA) say that, in the context of the 2012 electoral campaign, Aristotel Cancescu, as president of a political party’s county branch, asked and received a total of RON 485,000 from seven of the defendants in this case. In return, he promised to put them on the list of candidates for county councilor positions within Brasov County Council. All of those who offered bribes got to be county councilors.

Moreover, in 2012-2013, Aristotel Cancescu, as president of Brasov County Council, approved the allocation of money from the County Council’s reserve fund for the procurement of studies or to pay inflated contracts concluded between companies controlled by Sebastian Grapa and several City Halls in the county. However, Grapa gave part of this money to a political party, to be included on the list of candidates for Brasov County Council.

In 2013, Cancescu again approved the allocation of over RON 416,000 from Brasov County Council’s reserve fund. A commune City Hall was to use the money to buy a heating system from a company controlled by Gavril Matei. Thus, prosecutors say that Aristotel Cancescu used the money from the reserve fund to compensate his political collaborators.

Moreover, Sercaia commune mayor Cristinel Paltin also concluded a contract with a company owned by Sebastian Grapa, illegally.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com