Chamber of Deputies approves two arrest requests for former Romanian minister

The Romanian deputies decided on Monday evening that anticorruption prosecutors can extend the investigations on former Romanian minister Elena Udrea in two corruption cases and can even decide to arrest her. The prosecutors already called her in for questioning, on Tuesday at noon, and chances were high that they would hold her. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) last week filed six requests with the Chamber of Deputies, asking for approval to further prosecute and to arrest Udrea in the Microsoft IT Licenses case and in the Gala Bute case. The prosecutors have already indicted her for money laundering and false statements in her wealth statement in the Microsoft case. Udrea allegedly hid some of her former husband’s illegal money transfers by not revealing them in her wealth statement. Her former husband, Dorin Cocos, reportedly received EUR 9 million in bribes, in 2009, to help a private company prolong its contract to supply the state with Microsoft IT licenses. Last week, DNA came with new charges on Udrea, accusing her of having asked a EUR 500,000 bribe to help another businessman involved in this case. The prosecutors have also been investigating Udrea in a separate case related to the illegal financing of a boxing gala, which she helped organise in Romania in 2011. Elena Udrea’s Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism paid EUR 2.3 million to a private firm to hold the boxing gala, where Romanian champion Lucian Bute boxed, and Romania advertised its official tourism brand. The gala’s organiser, Rudel Obreja, was arrested last week in the same case. Udrea denied the charges against her and said that her cases were “fabricated” by the current director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), general Florian Coldea. Coldea, who took over as SRI's acting director after George Maior's resignation, answered before a parliamentary committee on Monday. After hearings, the senators and deputies in the committee ruled that Udrea’s accusations were unfounded. editor@romania-insider.com