Former Organized Crime Chief Prosecutor allegedly bribed by Romania’s richest

Alina Bica, former head of Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), allegedly received bribes of EUR 3.5 million from Ioan Niculae, the richest Romanian, via minister Liviu Dragnea, reports local Mediafax. In return, she was supposed to intervene in the settlement of Niculae’s file at DIICOT, the position of general prosecutor also being promised to her. According to investigators, Bica spoke to the case prosecutor in order to delay the settlement in Niculae’s case. Alina Bica is currently under preventive arrest for abuse of office, for her activity as part of a commission within Romania’s National Authority for Property Restitution (ANRP), the state institution which determined the compensations paid to people whose assets had been confiscated by the communist regime. As member of that commission, Bica allegedly approved compensation for a 13-hectare land in a suburb of Bucharest which was significantly overpriced, according to DNA. Romanian Organized Crime Chief Prosecutor resigns after being arrested. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com