Football club owner arrested in overvalued retrocession case, he bribed politician in a church

Romanian investor Mihai Rotaru, the main shareholder of local football club CS Universitatea Craiova, was arrested on Thursday evening, November 26, after being questioned for several hours at the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) headquarters in Bucharest. The DNA prosecutors charged Rotaru with influence buying and complicity to abuse of office, as he bribed state officials, including Ioan Oltean, an influential member of the Deputies Chamber, to determine them approve an overvalued compensation in his favor. In June 2010, Romania’s National Authority for Property Restitution (ANRP), which is a state institution, awarded Rotaru a EUR 25 million compensation for a 6.2-hectare land plot located in Pitesti. The compensation was almost EUR 20 million higher than the plot’s market value, which means that the state took a EUR 20 million damage, according to a DNA statement. Rotaru had bought the litigious rights for that land from the person entitled to get the compensation for EUR 750,000 in November 2009. He thus made more than 30 times his money (on paper) in just a few months. The compensation was not paid in cash but in Fondul Proprietatea shares, which were not listed at that time and were trading at about half their face value on a grey market. The former president of the ANRP, Crinuta Dumitrean, was also held in this case, as she was one of the people responsible for awarding Rotaru the huge compensation. Former ANRP board members Sergiu Diacomatu, Rodica Constantinovici, and Lăcrămioara Alexandru were also held together with evaluator Sergiu Negurici, who artificially increased the value of the land plot. Apparently, they all received money from Rotaru to help him get the compensation. Two members of the Deputies Chamber, Ioan Oltean and Catalin Teodorescu, were also questioned in this case. According to the prosecutors, Ioan Oltean, an influential member of the former Democratic Liberal Party (PDL), currently a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), received a EUR 600,000 bribe from Mihai Rotaru, in a church near Bucharest, to use his influence on ANRP’s president Crinuta Dumitrean. Ioan Oltean had supported Dumitrean to get the position at ANRP. The prosecutors let Oltean go after three hours of questioning, as he has political immunity as a member of the Parliament. ANRP is the state institution that has been handling the compensation process for assets confiscated by the communist regime. During Dumitrean’s mandate, ANRP awarded several overvalued compensations, damaging the state by tens of millions of euros. Two of those compensations have already been investigated by DNA and the cases have already been sent to court. Another corruption case worth millions: Romanian deputy, football club owner, questioned for EUR 25 mln restitution