The Baneasa case comes to an end

Well-known names will end up behind bars in a corruption scandal that caused the state huge losses.

Bogdan Matei, 18.12.2020, 13:50

After being constantly in the headlines
some years back, the fight against top-level corruption has lost some steam in
recent years. Seen by many as the spearhead of this fight, the former head of
the National Anticorruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi was removed from
office by president Klaus Iohannis following pressure from the former Social
Democrat-led government. She is now the chief of the newly created European Public
Prosecutor’s Office based in Brussels. The Country’s Supreme Defence Council
led by president Klaus Iohannis excluded corruption from its latest national
security strategy as a possible threat to the state. Despite this, high-profile
cases still find a resolution now and then, leading to sentences for big names from
politics, the media and the business community.

One such case was the illegal return of the
former royal farm in Baneasa and of the Snagov forest, both located near
Bucharest, something that caused a loss to the state of over 140 million euros.
An influential head of cabinet in the government of the Social Democrat Adrian
Nastase, the businessman Remus Truica was handed down a final 7-year prison sentence
by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. A direct descendant, albeit through
a morganatic marriage, of Romania’s former king Carol II, a man best known to
the public as Prince Paul of Romania got three years and four months in prison,
while the controversial journalist Dan Andronic was given a 3-year suspended sentence
and 60 days of community service. Apostol Musat, the former mayor of Snagov and
Nicolae Jecu, the former prefect of Ilfov county, received 4 years in prison.

Truica, the star of this heterogeneous
group, was charged by the National Anticorruption Directorate for creating an
organised crime group, peddling in influence, money laundering, complicity to
abuse of office and bribe giving. Prince Paul was charged with buying influence
and money laundering in aggravated form. According to magistrates, these crimes
were committed between 2006 and 2013 with the aim of obtaining goods of great
value, which Prince Paul claimed but to which he had no right. The court also ruled
to confiscate various properties in Snagov from Truica and over 5 million euros
from Prince Paul. Moreover, the defendants must together pay the forest
authority Romsilva more than 1 million euros in damages. The High Court also
ruled that the land with a surface area of over 170,000 square metres will be
returned to the public domain. (CM)