Developments in Anti-corruption
Elena Udrea at the moment can be seen as a victim of intelligence services, as she claims, or an organized crime kingpin, as the prosecutors portray her.
Ştefan Stoica, 05.02.2015, 13:33
Elena Udrea, MP, former minister and presidential candidate, is in deeper and deeper trouble with the law. The way she chose to defend herself was to invoke an alleged cabal of intelligence operatives and services, one which is neither credible, nor very inspired. On Wednesday, anti-corruption prosecutors filed twice for a pre-emptive arrest warrant in her name, in the famous Gala Bute and Microsoft cases. The first revolves around the 2011 boxing gala starring former world champion Lucian Bute, a gala organized with funding by the Ministry of Tourism, which Udrea headed at the time. The second is the huge case involving software licenses granted illegally by the Ministry of Education.
The charges range from influence peddling to bribe taking, on top of money laundering and financial statement fraud. The prosecutors add that Udrea has violated the conditions of her judicial status at this point, which means that she may be put under arrest. Udrea denied all accusations, which she attributed to her public statements regarding interim Romanian Intelligence Service director, General Florian Coldea. She claimed on national television that he tried to lead Romania through occult means and manipulation, and Udrea also claimed he was helped by a special relationship he has with the head prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi.
The former minister did admit that she cannot provide any evidence for her claims, which she said were provided to her during conversations with various parties. Not much, coming from someone formerly seen as the most powerful woman in Romanian politics, in virtue of her relationship with former president Traian Basescu. Her mentor, however, keeps silent, and does not defend her, as the public expected. In addition, two important figures gravitating around Udrea, ex-husband Dorin Cocos, a businessman, and the former head of organized crime prosecutors, Alina Bica, are now in detention. Is she a victim of the intelligence services or her own corruption? A rhetorical question for the large numbers of people who have always held her in contempt.
At the same time, she is far from being part of a select group when it comes to state officials who have seen the inside of an Anti-Corruption Directorate interrogation room. Prosecutors have filed for a criminal investigation into Toni Grebla, a Constitutional Court justice until Wednesday. He resigned after the directorate filed in the Senate for his arrest. Among the charges against him are favoritism, use of information barred from disclosure and allowing unauthorized persons access to information for the purpose of obtaining money or undue benefits.
