Romanian court orders release of former finance minister Darius Vâlcov from prison
The Vrancea Tribunal decided on Wednesday, June 3, to release Darius Vâlcov, the Social Democrat (PSD) former mayor of Slatina who also served as finance minister between 2014 and 2015, from jail on parole.
In 2015, the Social Democrat was accused by prosecutors of influence peddling, money laundering, carrying out acts of commerce incompatible with his office, and concluding financial transactions using information obtained by virtue of his position. According to the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), in 2009, businessman Theodor Berna, administrator of Tehnologica Radion, contacted Darius Vâlcov, who at the time was mayor of Slatina. Berna asked for Vâlcov’s support in obtaining contracts with the Olt Water Company in exchange for 20% of their value.
During the searches, prosecutors discovered more than RON 1.3 million, EUR 90,000, three gold bars weighing three kilograms, and 172 paintings, acquired by Vâlcov through intermediaries, some of them hidden inside false walls in properties belonging to the former minister, according to HotNews.
Many of the artworks in Vâlcov's hidden collection were auctioned off by the state earlier this year.
Darius Vâlcov also faced two other corruption cases but managed to avoid conviction in both. In November 2021, the Craiova Court of Appeal acquitted him in a case in which he was accused of incitement to give and take bribes.
In May 2023, Vâlcov was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption in the case that began in 2015. He fled to Italy before the sentence was handed down, but was extradited to Romania that August and incarcerated.
In November last year, Vâlcov’s sentence was reduced by one year after a panel of five judges from the High Court admitted an extraordinary appeal and found that the statute of limitations had expired for the influence-peddling charge. His sentence was therefore reduced to five years for money laundering.
The former official’s lawyers continued to file requests for parole in the years of his incarceration. In April, the Focșani Court rejected Vâlcov’s request for parole as unfounded. He appealed that decision, and the Vrancea Tribunal upheld his appeal and ruled that the former minister be released from the Focșani Penitentiary.
(Photo source: Inquam Photos|Octav Ganea)
