At a time when the Romanian justice system is under
\nscrutiny both in Bucharest and in Brussels, the chief prosecutor of the
\nNational Anticorruption Directorate Laura Codruta Kovesi has recently presented
\nthe 2017 activity report of the institution she’s been heading since 2013. Last
\nyear was a difficult year for the fight against corruption, a fight that was
\nstrongly challenged and questioned, Kovesi has stated. However, anticorruption
\nprosecutors managed to solve last year more than 3,800 cases, which was a
\nrecord for the institution. Also, assets worth some 200 million euros were frozen.
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On Tuesday, at a debate on asset recovery, Laura
\nCodruta Kovesi said that the state has one billion euros to collect from
\nseizures decided in cases prosecuted by the Directorate alone. According to
\nKovesi, since 2013, the National Anticorruption Directorate has frozen 2
\nbillion euros worth of assets. We have to see now whether the judges’ final
\nrulings will be enforced, the chief prosecutor stressed:<\/p>\n
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What I can tell you is that there are more than 990
\ncourt rulings in the files of the National Anticorruption Directorate ordering
\nthe seizure of assets worth more than one billion euros. These rulings are
\nfinal and they must be observed, because they have the force and effect of law.
\nFurther on, these rulings are submitted to the Finance Ministry and the other
\ninstitutions with responsibilities in enforcing them. I believe that these
\ninstitutions should state the problems they have in practice when trying to
\nenforce them, maybe in selling these properties. <\/p>\n
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Laura Codruta Kovesi has also stated that many of
\nthose who are being prosecuted are trying to hide their assets abroad. She has
\nstressed the fact that there is a financial investigation department within the
\nDirectorate that has started dealing with this situation too, and recalled that
\n2016 was the first time the National Anticorruption Directorate seized assets
\nfrom the territories of other countries and froze accounts opened in Cyprus,
\nGermany and Switzerland. <\/p>\n
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For his part, the Finance Minister Eugen Teodorovici
\nhas given assurances that authorities will do their duty:<\/p>\n
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Everything that falls within the responsibilities of
\nthe tax authorities will be enforced. I don’t thing that they will ever decide
\nnot to enforce a ruling issued by a court. I am convinced that procedures to
\nrecover such losses have already started.<\/p>\n
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The Finance Ministry has announced that it will soon
\npresent a report on the situation of such recoveries. In turn, the head of the
\noperative department in charge of seizures and foreclosures with the National
\nAgency for Fiscal Administration, Avram Toni, has stated that there are only 80
\nemployees working on 20 thousand such cases. However, since the setting up of
\nthe institution in 2016, more than 86 million euros have been collected as a
\nresult of asset recovery measures. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anticorruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi says the Romanian state is to recover 1 bn euros in proceeds of corruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":76472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29799],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-76828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-laura-codruta-kovesi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n