Money incident prolongs hearings in Romanian surgeon embezzlement case

The hearings held on December 21 in the embezzlement case targeting Romanian surgeon Mihai Lucan and several others were prolonged after EUR 5,000 fell out of the surgeon’s pocket as he was exiting the prosecutor’s office, Digi24.ro reported. The Directorate for Combatting Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) is investigating famous Romanian surgeon Mihai Lucan, alongside his son, Valerian Ciprian Lucan, also a surgeon, and Dan Emil Fofiu-Sânpetreanu and Sanda Rodica Baciu, two managers of the Clinic Institute of Urology and Renal Transplant (ICUTR) in Cluj-Napoca in an embezzlement case. They are suspected of having brought damages of over RON 5 million (EUR 1.1 million) to the Clinic Institute of Urology and Renal Transplant (ICUTR) in Cluj-Napoca, in western Romania, by using the resources of the state-owned institute for the benefit of a private medical facility owned by Lucan’s family. The searches performed in the case uncovered EUR 600,000 in cash, luxury watches, and jewelry. At the same time, Mihai Lucan’s son-in-law was caught by policemen searching the house as he was trying to run way with a backpack filled with valuable goods. He had managed to hide EUR 10,000 in his car’s reservoir. The judges of the Bucharest Court decided that Mihai Lucan and his son, Valeriu Ciprian Mihai Lucan, will be investigated under judicial control. The DIICOT held them on December 21 and asked for their preventive arrest but the court rejected the request. Famous Romanian surgeon, held in embezzlement case editor@romania-insider.com