DNA: Calin Popescu-Tariceanu - prosecuted for taking bribe of 800,000 dollars

Former Senate President Calin Popescu-Tariceanu is being prosecuted by prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) in a case in which he is accused of taking a bribe worth 800,000 dollars.

According to a DNA release sent on Friday to AGERPRES, the DNA prosecutors ordered the criminal investigation against the suspect Calin Constantin Anton Popescu-Tariceanu for bribe taking, at the date of the deed having been the prime minister of Romania.

The anti-corruption prosecutors note in the ordinance that Tariceanu, as prime minister, allegedly received, indirectly, in the period 2007-2008, from the representatives of an Austrian company, material benefits in the amount of 800,000 dollars, consisting in the payment of consultancy services.

"In exchange, he exercised his duties so that a series of government decisions would be adopted in favor of the company. The amount of 800,000 dollars, representing a commission from the value of the payments made by the Romanian state to the company, was used for the benefit of the dignitary, to cover some expenses of the electoral campaign, being transferred on the basis of fictitious contracts concluded with several offshore companies", say the investigators.

According to DNA, this case was opened in 2018, by joining three criminal cases, one of which was taken over by DNA prosecutors at the request of the Austrian judicial authorities.

"After the rejection, on June 3, 2019, of the initial request for approval of the criminal investigation by the Senate (institution invested with the solution considering the senator capacity of Calin Popescu-Tariceanu at that time), the prosecutors made, in the same file, criminal investigation in facts and in other persons," the release reads.

As a result of the administration of additional evidence, there were elements of novelty that outlined the state of affairs mentioned above with reference to the former dignitary.

"In order to confiscate the object of the bribe taking offense, in this case a lien on real estate belonging to Calin Popescu-Tariceanu was ordered, up to the amount of 800,000 dollars, equivalent in lei - 3,204,640 lei," the prosecutors mention.