Romanian court sentences former hospital manager to over 13 years in prison

The former manager of Constanta County Emergency Hospital, Danut Capanata, was sentenced to 13 years and four months in prison for bribery and money laundering. The Bucharest Court's decision is not final, reports local Agerpres. According to the prosecutors, between July 2009 and May 2016, Danut Capatana, who was the hospital's manager at that time, asked several company representatives to pay him EUR 311,000, USD 28,000, and over RON 4.7 million. In return, Capatana made sure that the contracts between Constanta Emergency Hospitals and these companies were concluded and implemented properly, and that bills were paid on time. He allegedly received, directly or indirectly, a total of nearly EUR 198,000, USD 28,000, and more than RON 4.7 million. Moreover, in 2010-2011, his criminal activity expanded. In this period, he had proposed close collaborators who owned companies to conclude fictitious consultancy contracts with some offshore companies. In exchange, Capatana promised them that he would make sure that the contracts these companies had with the hospital would be maintained or renewed, the payments would be made on time, and no problems would appear while these contracts were in force. Capatana was previously convicted to four years and four months in prison in another case, in which the prosecutors accused him of rigging a contract for the concession of services of production, distribution, and monitoring of medical oxygen in the hospital. Two important doctors in Romania were arrested recently. One of them, a famous Romanian orthopaedic surgeon, Gheorghe Burnei, was arrested on Saturday on charges of bribery. He is also suspected of having carried out unauthorised experiments on the children he operated, which may have led to the death or permanent disability of some of his patients. The other one is the former manager of the Malaxa Hospital in Bucharest, who was arrested last week on charges of embezzlement and bribery. Former manager of Bucharest’s Floreasca Hospital prosecuted for abuse of office Two former Romanian hospital managers get three years probation for taking bribes Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com