New corruption case in Romania: Tax agency officials, two deputies, prosecuted in EU funds for Roma fraud case

The Romanian anticorruption prosecutors have decided to prosecute the National Fiscal Administration Agency – ANAF’s president Gelu Stefan Diaconu and vice president Mihai Gogancea-Vatasoiu in a fraud case related to EU-funded social projects. Two Romanian deputies, Madalin Voicu and Nicolae Paun, are also investigated in this case. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) has asked the Chamber of Deputies to approve prosecution and preventive arrest measures against the two. Nicolae Paun, who is also the president of the Roma’s Party, is investigating for fraud and misuse of EU funds, money laundering, and buying influence, among others. Madalin Voicu, who is a member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), and has held a deputy seat since 1996, is investigated for influence peddling, false statements, and money laundering, according to DNA. Voicu is also a musician and the son of famous Romanian violinist and conductor Ion Voicu. Both Voicu and Paun are Roma ethnics. ANAF’s president and vice president are investigated for favoring the perpetrators and for abuse of office in exchange for undue benefits, a DNA statement shows. Eight other people are investigated in this case. Most of them have been involved in the projects that raised the fraud suspicions. According to the prosecutors, all these people have been involved in running two EU funded social projects aimed at helping Roma citizen find jobs or get involved in social entrepreneurship initiatives. The two projects haven’t trained anyone thus failing to reach their objectives. However, those employed to work on the two projects have been paid big salaries without doing any work in some cases. Some EUR 5.4 million worth of EU funds and EUR 670,000 paid by the Romanian state for co-financing these projects have thus been defrauded. Niculae Paun’s Roma Party received some EUR 300,000 from the two projects, as all those employed to carry out the projects had to pay a percentage of their salaries to the party. Madalin Voicu and his wife have also received close to EUR 100,000. Voicu was allegedly paid to use his influence in order to get the projects approved for EU financing. One of the projects allegedly trained some 3,300 people belonging to vulnerable groups in social entrepreneurship initiatives. However, most of the people whose data appeared on the project’s list had no knowledge of it. Only 163 people apparently participated in the training seminars. Some 77% of the EUR 2.75 million funds dedicated to this projects went on the salaries of those involved in the project. The other project aimed to train 3,000 young people to help them get jobs. Instead of 360 hours of training, these people were paid between RON 300 and RON 600 to register on the lists. Some of them went to some seminars, others didn’t but still got the money. Some EUR 3.3 million were spent on this second project. OLAF: Romania leads European ranking of anti-fraud investigations