CORRUPTION WITHOUT BORDERS A judge from Iaşi charged with influence peddling and abuse in office

The president of the Military Territorial Court of Iaşi, judge of Radu-Dimitrie Tarniceriu, is being prosecuted for influence peddling and indirect participation in abuse in office, the National Anti-Corruption Department announced in a communiqué.

According to the document, Tarniceriu, who was president of the Court of Iaşi, was promised, in 2010, the amount of 50,000 Euros, in order to use his position to intercede with the judges of the Court, involved in the trial of a civil case.

According to the prosecutors of the Anti-Corruption Department, as a result of the actions of the judge, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has suffered a loss of 1,963,199.51 lei.

According to them, the intervention was intended to have the court admit the appeal filed against the civil ruling of March 18th, 2010, through which the Court of Răducăneni, in the county of Iaşi, had denied the complaint filed by the representatives of a company which sought to have their right of ownership of over a plot of land registered with the Răducăneni Land Registry and Real Estate Publicity Office.

The amount of 50,000 Euros initially promised by the individuals in question in exchange for rendering a ruling that favored the company in the appeal, in the case of the Court of Iaşi, would be offered/received after the sale of the plot of land which was the object of the lawsuit, and would be divided equally between Tarniceriu Radu-Dimitrie and another individual, the press release of the DNA states.

The prosecutors also write that, "in the ordinance for the beginning of the prosecution, in order to have the guarantee that the promised bribe would be paid, on the next day after the rendering of the civil ruling (September 22nd, 2010), in exchange for the assistance received, the owner of the company offered judge Tarniceriu Radu-Dimitrie and the other individual a stake in the company, through a capital increase, which gave the other individual a 20% stake in the company in question".

Another charge brought by the DNA against the former head of the Court of Iaşi is that together with the beneficiary of the share capital increase and two other people, he has facilitated the actions of the buyer of influence to determine the two judges of the Court of Iaşi to admit the appeal filed by the representatives of the company, through the ruling of September 22nd, 2010.

Following this court ruling, the Office for the Land Registry and Real Estate Advertising of Raducaneni, the county of Iaşi, was forced to register, in favor of the company, the right of ownership over a surface of 282.5 hectares of land placed outside the buildable area of the Gorban, in the county of Iaşi, which was part of the public estate of the state, the prosecutors say.

Following these fraudulent approaches, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development suffered a loss of 1,963,199.51 lei, which became a benefit for the company in question, following the illegal registration in the Land Registry of Gorban of the right of ownership over the plot of land in question.