Liberty Galati CEO reportedly probed in bribe case involving former minister

The general manager of the Liberty steel plant in Galati, Bogdan Grecu, is being prosecuted in the corruption case involving former environment minister Costel Alexe, judicial sources told HotNews.ro.

Prosecutors accuse Grecu of offering 22 tons of steel sheets to Alexe as a bribe. The official charges are bribery and embezzlement.

Bogdan Grecu has been leading the steel plant in Galati since May 2018. According to the company's website, he is the general manager of the unit group LIBERTY Galati - LIBERTY Skopje (Northern Republic of Macedonia) and coordinates the two units' operations.

On January 5, Romania's National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) asked the General Prosecutor to notify president Klaus Iohannis for approving the criminal investigation of Costel Alexe, former Liberal (PNL) minister of environment and current head of the Iasi County Council. President Iohannis has already endorsed the request.

The DNA prosecutors accuse Alexe, one of the most influential PNL leaders, of having asked the manager of a local steel plant to provide sheet metal in exchange for allocating greenhouse gas emission certificates to the plant. The products requested by Alexe - 22 tons of tinned metal sheets (worth about EUR 20,000), were allegedly sent on April 23, 2020 and July 7, 2020 to the office of a company managed by one of the former minister's relatives, according to the DNA prosecutors.

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