Former Romanian chief prosecutor and tax agency head, detained for bribery

Romania’s anticorruption prosecutors held Alina Bica, the former head of the Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), in a new case on bribery. She is accused of taking a bribe to close the DIICOT file on local investor Horia Simu. The prosecutors also held Serban Pop, the former vice president of Romania’s tax authority ANAF, in the same case. He is charged with complicity to bribery.

Pop allegedly received EUR 230,000 from Horia Simu whereas Bica got EUR 17,500 of the total amount in order to use her influence and close DIICOT’s investigation on Simu, according to judicial sources.

The National Anticorruption Directorate has indicted Bica in another case related to illegal land restitutions. As a member of Romania’s National Authority for Property Restitution (ANRP), Bica allegedly approved compensation for a 13-hectare land in a suburb of Bucharest which was significantly overpriced, according to DNA. The value of the land was artificially increased from EUR 27 million to EUR 89.4 million, damaging the state by EUR 62.4 million. She was under arrest between November 22 last year and April 21, this year. Romanian businessman Horia Simu was also charged in a similar restitution case, for receiving compensation for a land that was overvalued by some EUR 55 million. Romanian businessman known as the “copper banker” arrested in overvalued retrocessions case Romania’s restitution saga: A group of 70 people received cash and Fondul Proprietatea shares worth over EUR 1 bln Former Romanian Anti-Organised Crime head, investigated for corruption Former Organized Crime Chief Prosecutor allegedly bribed by Romania’s richest editor@romania-insider.com