Romanian financial regulator’s former head sues state for damages

The former president of Romania’s Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) Dan Radu Rusanu said he would sue the state for damages for the period he spent in arrest in a corruption case in which the judges acquitted him of all charges. He’s asking for compensations worth RON 6.5 million (EUR 1.4 million), most of which covers the fees paid to his lawyers and the salaries he should have got as ASF president during his five-year mandate, of which he only got to serve four months. Rusanu considers former president Traian Basescu responsible for his arrest. The former ASF president, who was also an influential member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), was held in February 2014 and then arrested at the beginning of March, for allegedly organizing a criminal group that protected a local insurance company that had big financial problems at that time. He spent four years in police arrest. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) sent him to court in April 2014, charging him with abuse of office and influence peddling. He was acquitted in April 2016, when the judges ruled that the corruption acts he was accused of didn’t exist. Another court issued a final acquittal sentence in his case, in June 2017. Rusanu now says that the prosecutor who investigated his case was responsible for his arrest, as he presented misconstrued evidence and incomplete witness depositions to the judge to back the arrest request. Rusanu, 67, was a member of the Parliament from 2000 until April 2013, when he took over as president of the newly established Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF). In February 2014, Rusanu decided to place Astra Asigurari, one of the biggest local insurance companies, under special administration. Astra was owned by local investor Dan Adamescu, known for being part of former president Traian Basescu’s circle of collaborators. editor@romania-insider.com