Recovering the proceeds of corruption

Anticorruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi says the Romanian state is to recover 1 bn euros in proceeds of corruption.

Leyla Cheamil, 07.03.2018, 13:23

At a time when the Romanian justice system is under
scrutiny both in Bucharest and in Brussels, the chief prosecutor of the
National Anticorruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi has recently presented
the 2017 activity report of the institution she’s been heading since 2013. Last
year was a difficult year for the fight against corruption, a fight that was
strongly challenged and questioned, Kovesi has stated. However, anticorruption
prosecutors managed to solve last year more than 3,800 cases, which was a
record for the institution. Also, assets worth some 200 million euros were frozen.

On Tuesday, at a debate on asset recovery, Laura
Codruta Kovesi said that the state has one billion euros to collect from
seizures decided in cases prosecuted by the Directorate alone. According to
Kovesi, since 2013, the National Anticorruption Directorate has frozen 2
billion euros worth of assets. We have to see now whether the judges’ final
rulings will be enforced, the chief prosecutor stressed:

What I can tell you is that there are more than 990
court rulings in the files of the National Anticorruption Directorate ordering
the seizure of assets worth more than one billion euros. These rulings are
final and they must be observed, because they have the force and effect of law.
Further on, these rulings are submitted to the Finance Ministry and the other
institutions with responsibilities in enforcing them. I believe that these
institutions should state the problems they have in practice when trying to
enforce them, maybe in selling these properties.

Laura Codruta Kovesi has also stated that many of
those who are being prosecuted are trying to hide their assets abroad. She has
stressed the fact that there is a financial investigation department within the
Directorate that has started dealing with this situation too, and recalled that
2016 was the first time the National Anticorruption Directorate seized assets
from the territories of other countries and froze accounts opened in Cyprus,
Germany and Switzerland.

For his part, the Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici
has given assurances that authorities will do their duty:

Everything that falls within the responsibilities of
the tax authorities will be enforced. I don’t thing that they will ever decide
not to enforce a ruling issued by a court. I am convinced that procedures to
recover such losses have already started.

The Finance Ministry has announced that it will soon
present a report on the situation of such recoveries. In turn, the head of the
operative department in charge of seizures and foreclosures with the National
Agency for Fiscal Administration, Avram Toni, has stated that there are only 80
employees working on 20 thousand such cases. However, since the setting up of
the institution in 2016, more than 86 million euros have been collected as a
result of asset recovery measures.