Constanta Court of Appeal vice-president investigated after taking furniture as bribe

Romania's National Anticorruption Department (DNA) has begun the prosecution of Nicolae Stanciu, the former president and current vice-president of Constanta Court of Appeal, for allegedly receiving furniture items as bribe. In November-December 2012, Nicolae Stanciu has reached an agreement with a businessman, based on which the magistrate was to receive furniture items to help the businessman obtain favourable solutions in some cases registered at Constanta Court of Appeal. The cases were targeting complaints about auctions to which the businessman’s company had also participated. Stanciu was the president of the Court at that time. The Court's decisions helped the businessman’s company won the tender at the expense of another company that was previously declared the winning bidder by the contracting authority. The contract's value was RON 21 million (some EUR 4.7 million). Nicolae Stanciu allegedly used the furniture received from the businessman to arrange the last floor of his villa. These pieces of furniture, which were worth RON 14,815 (EUR 3,300), were delivered to Stanciu on December 21, 2012. Speed record: A Romanian doctor was receiving 10 bribes per minute Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com