Another corruption case worth millions: Romanian deputy, football club owner, questioned for EUR 25 mln restitution

Romanian deputy Ioan Oltean and local businessman Mihai Rotaru were been brought in for questioning at the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) headquarters in Bucharest on Thursday, November 26, in a case related to an overpriced property compensation awarded by the National Authority for Property Restitution (ANRP). The ANRP awarded Mihai Rotaru a RON 109 million (EUR 25 million) compensation for a land plot in Pitesti that had been confiscated by the communist regime from its rightful owner. Rotaru was not the confiscated land’s owner, nor a successor, but bought the litigious rights on the land from the person entitled to get the compensation for EUR 750,000, in 2009, according to official data quoted by the local media. The man who sold Rotaru the litigious rights had been battling in court with the Pitesti City Hall for about eight years, but didn’t manage to get a compensation. Rotaru, however, got ANRP to pay him EUR 25 million six months after buying the rights, according to Mediafax. DNA has been investigating this case, as the compensation may have been way higher than the land plot’s real value. Mihai Rotaru became more visible after he took over as a shareholder and main investor in CS Universitatea Craiova football club, which he took from the second division and promoted to Romania’s top league. The club’s shareholders even planned to float it on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB). In 2013, Rotaru also made an attempt to take control of SIF Moldova, a financial investment company with EUR 340 million worth of assets, which is listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange, after buying a significant stake in the company. The former members of the ANRP board, who approved the compensation awarded to Rotaru, including ANRP’s former president Crinuta Dumitrean, are also targeted in this case. The prosecutors also brought in for questioning Ioan Oltean, who is currently a member of the Chamber of Deputies. Oltean, a former secretary general of the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), currently a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), was stopped at the airport to be taken to the DNA headquarters on Thursday afternoon. The prosecutors wanted to question him as he was the one who supported Crinuta Dumitrean for the ANRP president position. Crinuta Dumitrean and the former ANRP board members are also on trial for abuse of office in a case in which the headline suspect is former anti-organized crime chief prosecutor Alina Bica, also a former ANRP board member. Bica and seven others have been indicted for abuse of office, for awarding an overvalued compensation to another local businessman named Gheorghe Stelian. ANRP awarded him over EUR 80 million as compensation for a 13-hectare land plot on Bucharest’s outskirts. The compensation was EUR 61 million higher than the plot’s market value. Former president and vice-president of the Romanian restitutions authority held by anticorruption prosecutors