Bucharest: two thirds of the contracted amounts

After Sorin Oprescu entered the Guinness Book of Records for the longest smoked sausage in the world and for the heaviest fruit and cream cake in the world in 2008, yesterday he achieved the "performance" of being the first mayor in office of Bucharest to be detained by the anti-corruption prosecutors for taking bribes. On Saturday night, Sorin Oprescu was detained by the National Anti-Corruption Department (DNA) for 24 hours, and yesterday morning he was taken out from jail to witness, for eight hours straight, the search of his home in Ciolpani. At the same time, searches were being conducted at the Headquarters of the General Mayoralty of Bucharest. Yesterday afternoon, the mayor was taken back to the cells of the Bucharest Police, and judicial sources have announced that the DNA would request a 30-day arrest warrant.

The officials of the National Anti-Corruption Department stated the following, in a press release: "Between 2013-2015, a well organized group, which defendant Oprescu Sorin Mircea also joined, has created a system within the local administration of Bucharest which required companies that wanted to win contracts with the public institutions that the mayor was in charge of, to pay a part of the gross profit made based on those contracts, as bribes, to decision makers close to the Mayor. Thus, the providers would keep for themselves between 30% and 33% of the gross profit, and the remaining amount would be remitted to the members of the mayor's entourage, in the form of bribes, and 10% of the amount of the contract was handed out to the defendant Oprescu Sorin Mircea".

The prosecutors claim that on Saturday, September 5th, based on a prior agreement with the leader of a public institution that answered to him and an individual that the mayor trusted, Sorin Oprescu received from the former the amount of 25,000 Euros out of the total 60,000 that the two had demanded from a number of four denouncers for the mayor. "To the point, the members of the group, people who held management positions within two public institutions that answered to the mayor of Bucharest would facilitate the winning of the contract, would persuade the employees they were in charge of to accept the awarding documentation, as well as to approve the payment of the invoices issued by the companies in question very quickly after their issuing, while also demanding the payment of bribes to people who held management positions within the mayoralty, as well as for the mayor himself", the press release further states.

The arrest of Sorin Oprescu raises many questions, because it is hard to understand how the mayor would be willing to accept a bribe of 25.000 Euros with the DNA anti-corruption campaign in full swing, and especially when one of his personal advisors and former investment manager of the mayoralty has been charged with the same offense.

In the beginning or June, the County Court of Bucharest has decided to preventively detain Solomon Wigler, the personal advisor of mayor Oprescu, in the case in which he was charged of having taken 204,000 Euros in bribes for interceding in favor of the approval of Urban zoning plans needed for the building of three supermarkets. In support of the decision to arrest Wigler, the judge was saying that he had persisted in his attempt to obtain material gains by implying that he had influence over the clerks of the mayoralty of Bucharest.

When asked, in the first half of June, what his opinion was on the arrest of his personal advisor Solomon Wigler, as well as about the investigation launched against prime-minister Victor Ponta, Oprescu answered: "There are two layers: the political war layer and the facts layer. Wigler will answer for his actions. As for the rest, I think that, in the beginning at least, they need to be looked at, from the angle of the presumption of innocence. We should never mistake the political war with the reality that we live in".

Smiling, the mayor told journalists that had he known what his personal advisor was doing, he would have been dismissed: "Things are as follows: it is a collective activity, but the liability is individual. When one doesn't think things through and weigh what they could lose in a few minutes - and I am referring to honorability, then that leaves two options: they're stupid, or they're stupid".

Considering that Oprescu is now accused of having stooped to taking a bribe that is far smaller than the one his advisor was accused of taking, it would be hard not to view that statement as ironic.

In 2014, Mădălin Dumitru, the head of the Infrastructure Department of the Mayoralty of Bucharest, was placed in preventive custody for asking bribes from the companies that performed public works for the mayoralty.

• A strange sting operation

Part of the 25,000 Euros which Sorin Oprescu received as bribe on Saturday night were found on him when he was pulled over, and the remaining amount was found at his home in Ciolpani, judicial sources quoted by Mediafax said.

The sources said that Sorin Oprescu received marked money, under the prosecutors' surveillance, who were however unable to arrest him as soon as the mayor was handed the money, because there were other at the scene who had to be prevented from knowing about the case against Oprescu, because they could have divulged information to other suspects.

Thus, Oprescu left with the money, as he was constantly monitored by the investigators.

On Saturday night, the mayor left towards another suspect who was investigated in the case, in order to hand them part of the amount received as bribe, the quoted sources further said. That is when the investigators thought the time was right to detain the mayor and stopped him in traffic, not far from his home in Ciolpani.

All of the marked bills were found and recovered by the investigators.

Alexandru Chiciu, Oprescu's lawyer, yesterday said that the charges of the DNA were unfounded and are based on "conclusions" drawn by other people. He also said that the DNA should "clarify" Oprescu's case.

The lawyer made the following statement to the press: "My client has given me the mandate to say that he has never asked for money, directly or indirectly, through middlemen, from anybody. The money was not received from the denouncers, and Mr. Oprescu had no idea about their origin. It was the duty of the DNA to clarify this case better, not to throw a man in jail just because of some words thrown around by other defendants".

Yesterday, as the paper was set to go the printer's, the mayor of Bucharest was going to show up before the County Court of Bucharest, with a proposal for his preventive arrest for 30 days.

The anti-corruption prosecutors have also announced yesterday that they are conducting research in a criminal case which concerns suspected acts of corruption, committed between 2013 and 2015. Yesterday, 13 properties were searched, in Bucharest, as well as in the counties of Bacău, Călăraşi and Ilfov, of which 3 were the headquarters of public institutions, and the rest were the headquarters of private companies and individual residences.

Judicial sources quoted by TV networks told us that the searches have targeted subordinates and close colleagues of Sorin Oprescu, as well as businesspeople.

Other institutions that were targeted were the Administration of Cemeteries and the "Palatele Brâncoveneşti" Cultural Center.

According to some sources quoted by Agerpres, some of the money offered as bribe ended up in the hands of a female journalist. According to those same sources, the money was recovered.

Sources close to the situation told us that Oprescu's former driver, currently an employee of the Administration of Cemeteries, was heard yesterday as a suspect in the case.

The prosecutors have received specialized aid from the Romanian Intelligence Service and from the Special Intervention Brigade of the Gendarmerie.