A Complex Corruption Case
In an ironic turn of events, one of the latest high-profile corruption cases involves a high-ranking official in the countrys foremost organized crime fighting unit in the country.
Roxana Vasile, 24.11.2014, 13:53
Senior prosecutor Alina Bica’s story of professional rise and fall reads like a novel. In 1996 she was a prosecutor with the court in Sfantu Gheorghe, a small provincial town in Transylvania. Four years later, staying in Transylvania, she became a prosecutor with the main court in Brasov, and after four more years, she had made it all the way to Bucharest. Here she joined the prosecutor’s office with the High Court of Cassation, first in the Criminal Investigation and Forensics Section, then in the Independent Service for High Level Economic and Financial Crime.
She became an undersecretary in the Ministry of Justice during the term held by Liberal Democrat Catalin Predoiu, and then, in 2013, she was appointed in her current position, head of the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), proposed for the position by the Social Democrat Prime Minister himself, Victor Ponta, who was then interim Minister of Justice. At about a year and a half after her appointment, the head prosecutor resigned, as she found herself involved in a major corruption case that has seen the light of day recently. The resignation came shortly after she was placed under pre-emptive arrest for a maximum of 30 days pending investigation.
Also as a result of that case, the Higher Council of Magistrates, which regulates the activity of prosecutors and judges, decided to suspend Alina Bica. The accusations against her revolve around the position she held in 2011, when she was an undersecretary with the Ministry of Justice. She was sitting on a committee that handled restitution of land confiscated by the communist regime under its nationalization policy. She is alleged of abusing her position and pushing through the payment of restitution for a plot of land grossly overvalued.
More to the point, the committee approved the payment of around 84 million Euros to a businessperson as compensation for a piece of land near Bucharest that cost much less in reality. According to the anti-corruption prosecutors, the damage to the state amounts to around 60 million Euros. The affair, however, is even more intricate. The same case also involves Dorin Cocos, a businessman and former spouse to one of this year’s presidential candidates, Elena Udrea, head of the People’s Movement Party.
In a Facebook post, she claims to have nothing to do with the affair of the overvalued land her ex-husband is involved in. Dorin Cocos is alleged to have asked for 10 million Euros in return for putting in a good word with the National Property Restitution Authority for pushing through the spurious claim. Elena Udrea has withheld comment on Alina Bica’s case, as they are known to have a long-standing friendship.
