Romania’s chief anticorruption prosecutor attacks foreign intelligence service

Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) hasn’t received any information on possible crimes from the foreign intelligence service SIE in the last three years, DNA chief prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi said on Tuesday, April 26.

“It’s illegal to have information about possible crimes and not inform the National Anticorruption Directorate,” Kovesi said in a conference about the obstacles in the fight against corruption in Romania.

“Since I took over as DNA chief prosecutor, we haven’t received any information from SIE. However, we see more suspects who start businesses abroad. This raises the question why we haven’t ever been informed of such activities. We haven’t been notified about foreign bank accounts, or luxury villas, or luxury yachts,” she added, according to Mediafax.

The chief anticorruption prosecutor said that DNA sometimes found out about Romanian politicians’ or businessmen’s assets abroad from the media. “Do we really believe that EUR 6-7 million real estate assets can be bought without any intelligence officer stumbling upon this?” she asked.

She pointed out that it was illegal to withhold such information from the DNA and that any intelligence service director or officer should respect this. “I find it hard to believe that there is no information. It’s a matter of national security when someone transfers millions of euro to another country, when significant amounts are transferred through offshores,” Kovesi said.

This is DNA’s first open attack on one of the country’s intelligence services, which brings to the surface the power struggle between some of Romania’s power institutions. A few weeks back, news broke that former Israeli spies, working for a private company called Black Cube, have been spying on Kovesi and her family. The Black Cube representatives claimed that the company’s services had been commissioned by the Romanian authorities.

The chief prosecutor of the Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) Daniel Horodniceanu said that the foreign intelligence service SIE hasn’t helped DIICOT in investigating this espionage case. He made the statement at the same conference where Kovesi launched her attack on SIE, according to Romania Libera.

The foreign intelligence service SIE is the country’s second-biggest secret service after the Romanian intelligence service SRI. Former Prime Minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu has been director of SIE since July 2015. He previously held this position between 2007 and 2012.