Romanian university rector arrested on bribery charges after leaking exam questions

Tiberius-Danut Epure, the rector of the Ovidius University in the Romanian seaside city of Constanta, was arrested on Tuesday (July 30) for 24 hours on bribery charges. According to the National Anti-Corruption Agency (DNA) statement, Epure received EUR 1,000 in August last year from “a person”, through an intermediary, to facilitate the admission of “that person’s daughter” at the Pharmacy faculty within the Ovidius University, on one of the places reserved for foreign citizens. In July this year, Tiberius Epure allegedly asked for a total of EUR 9,000, both directly and through an intermediary, in order to leak the exam topics to some of the candidates for the Pharmacy faculty. “From the money alleged in July 2013, the defended received the amount of EUR 4,000 and then gave the biology and chemistry exam questions and their solutions to one of the candidates,” reads the DNA statement. Tala Stere was also arrested for complicity to bribery after helping Epure get the EUR 4,000, as the intermediary of the transaction. Tiberius-Danut Epure and Tala Stere will appear in front of the Bucharest Court for a 29-day arrest proposal. Epure was elected rector of Ovidiu University in Constanta in February this year, after serving as dean of the same university between 2009 and 2012. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Sxc.hu)