Romanian tax agency ANAF sues former president Klaus Iohannis over Sibiu house

Romanian tax agency ANAF has sued former president Klaus Iohannis in order to recover the loss of use of half of a property in the center of Sibiu.

“The action represents a continuation of the steps that ANAF has taken for the recognition of the state’s ownership right and the recovery of compensation determined by the loss of use of this property,” stated the National Agency for Fiscal Administration in a press release.

According to the quoted source, given that the Iohannis family refused voluntary payment, the action also requested that the court impose precautionary measures on their assets to guarantee the recovery of the amounts owed to the state.

After several procedural cycles, in May 2014, the Brașov Tribunal annulled the sale-purchase contract concerning the property in Sibiu, “concluded between the defendants Baştea Ioan, deceased, the heir Baştea Rodica, as seller, and Iohannis Carmen Georgeta and Iohannis Klaus Werner, as buyers,” according to information posted on the court portal.

The house on Nicolae Bălcescu Street, along with another one on 35 Gheorghe Magheru Street in Sibiu, was owned by Eliseu and Maria Ghenea and was nationalized in the 1960s by the communist regime. After the revolution, a presumed heir to the former owners obtained the house and sold it to the then-school inspector Klaus Iohannis for only USD 3,200.

In September 2024, the High Court of Cassation and Justice definitively dismissed the appeal filed by Rodica Baştea, from whom the Iohannis family had bought part of a property in Sibiu, in the case concerning the ownership right over the house.

At the beginning of October, ANAF announced that it had taken over half of a property in the municipality of Sibiu, located at 29 Nicolae Bălcescu Street, which belonged to the Iohannis family. Representatives of the agency also changed the locks.

“We assure the public that all legal measures will be undertaken promptly to defend all the interests of the Romanian state,” ANAF representatives said.

(Photo source: presidency.ro)