Romanian prosecutors freeze over EUR 15 mln assets in case targeting former finance minister

Prosecutors from Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) have seized assets worth EUR 15.1 million belonging to suspects in a corruption case targeting former finance minister Sebastian Vladescu, former MP Cristian Boureanu and the former general manager of state lender Eximbank, Ionut Costea. The prosecutors charged Vladescu and the others with bribery. A foreign company allegedly paid EUR 20 million worth of bribes to Romanian officials to get the contract for rehabilitating the 225-kilometer railway line connecting Bucharest to Constanta. Work on this contract started in 2005 and ended in 2014, six years later than estimated, and the total costs amounted to EUR 1 billion, up from the initially estimated EUR 665 million. An association of three Austrian companies, Swietelsky-Wiebe-Takenaka, worked on this line. The DNA prosecutors said that Sebastian Vladescu received EUR 1 million and Ionut Costea – EUR 4.5 million. Former Romanian finance minister pays part of his bail in gold editor@romania-insider.com