THE DNA MAKING OFFENSES DISAPPEAR Rat and win!

Whereas before, the DNA would use house arrest and pretrial (monitored) conditional release, instead of preventive custody, to negotiate information about offenses from the political and business world, the prosecutors are now using as "currency" the closing of court cases.

When in front of the prosecutors, politicians' vision on life changes and they resort to the evidence they collected in bulk, it doesn't matter if it concerns colleagues or opponents (it is well known that politicians often record each other).

The natural consequence of this practice is that an increasing number of offenders will go in through the front door in handcuffs and they will walk out free through the back-door, as snitches cleansed of their sins.

The principle that the DNA follows - to eradicate the phenomenon, because it transcends people - can bring about the ridiculous result of corruption continuing unabated, and the corrupt are free, despite the evidence that exists against them.

We will probably see, in the coming years, who Claudiu Florică, Dinu Pescariu and Dragoş Stan testified against.

The National Anti-Corruption Department (DNA) recently shocked through its decision to close the cases of bribe offering and purchasing influence, brought against Dinu Pescariu, Dragoş Stan and Claudiu Florică, in the "Microsoft" case, which proves that prosecutors have begun making deals with the denouncers, in exchange for full confessions backed by evidence.

According to the DNA, they have denounced the offenses that they have committed.

It is already public knowledge that Dinu Pescariu, who is a target in the "Microsoft" case, has denounced Elena Udrea, declaring that she had asked him for 500,000 Euros "to solve his judicial problems".

Former Communications minister Gabriel Sandu allegedly made several denouncements against several politicians, which led to his preventive arrest being replaced with house arrest.

The representatives of the DNA told us: "In the case you are referring to (ed. note: the Microsoft case) - ending with the bringing of lawsuits against four individuals for influence trafficking - it was decided to drop the counts of bribe offering as stipulated in article 290 paragraph one of the Criminal Code in relation to art. 6 of the law no. 78/2000 as well as that of purchasing influence, because the facts in question were denounced by the people you mentioned (ed. note: Dinu Pescariu and Claudiu Florică). In the case in question, the individuals mentioned were not suspects or defendants. The legal basis for the closing of the bribe offering case which was denounced, is article 290 paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code of law, specifically «The person offering a bribe will not be punished if they denounce the act prior to the criminal prosecution having received a complaint about it ». The legal basis for the closing of the denounced influence buying is art. 292 paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code, specifically «The offender will not be punished if they denounce the offense prior to the criminal prosecution having received a complaint about it»".

According to the DNA, the clause for the non-punishment of individuals that denounce acts of corruption prior to the prosecution bodies being notified about was also present in the Criminal Code prior that was applicable before February 1st, 2014, and the decision not to prosecute was applicable in every case where the conditions of the law have been met.

On the status of the possible damages that the DNA should recoup from Claudiu Florică, Dragoş Stan and Dinu Pescariu, the prosecutors told us that the offenses of offering/accepting bribes, and influence peddling/buying, respectively, are not defined as offenses that cause material losses, such as for instance, the offense of abuse in office with obtaining unjust benefits for oneself or for a third party. The DNA mentions: "Considering that in the case you are referring to (ed. note: the Microsoft case) the four defendants were only charged with influence peddling, the distraint decided in this particular case concerned strictly these offenses. As a result, some of the defendants' assets were placed under distraint, assets which had a value equivalent to the amount that represents the object of the influence peddling offense, which will be the object of special confiscation. Special confiscation is a safety measure which can only be decided by the court".

Dorin Cocoş, Dumitru Nicolae, Gheorghe Ştefan and Gabriel Sandu were indicted on March 23rd, on charges of acts of corruption concerning the manner in which Microsoft licenses were awarded over ten years

Dorin Cocoş, Gabriel Sandu and Dumitru Nicolae were placed under house arrest, and Gheorghe Ştefan, was placed in preventive custody. Dorin Cocoş is still in prison, because a preventive custody warrant has been issued on his name in the case of Alina Bica which was severed from the one concerning the illegal arrest from the ANRP.

• Darius Vâlcov - arrested and denouncer

Former finance minister Darius Vâlcov was arrested yesterday by the prosecutors of the DNA in the case in which he is being charged with influence peddling, after having allegedly intervened in favor of a businessman to help him win some contracts, when he was a mayor in Slatina.

The senate yesterday approved his detainment and arrest.

Darius Vâlcov yesterday asked his senator colleagues to vote in favor of his arrest, also saying that he did not want to be forced to resign from the Senate to make himself available to the judiciary system.

What the parliamentary colleagues of Darius Vâlcov probably didn't know was that yesterday morning, he had gone to the headquarters of the DNA, and, according to some judicial sources quoted by România TV, he had made two denunciations, which feature the name of former president Traian Băsescu, as well as that of former PDL president Vasile Blaga.

Apparently, Darius Vâlcov went to the DNA of his own accord and has asked the prosecutors to allow him to make statements. According to some judicial sources, Darius Vâlcov had acknowledged that he had taken 2 million Euros from the representatives of Tehnologica Radion and of other companies, but he told prosecutors that he had delivered the money down the line to the PDL, a party he was a member of at the time.

The DNA has filed another request to allow for the arrest of Darius Vâlcov, whom it suspects of having used information obtained as mayor, senator and minister, to support a cadastral company, an accounting firm and a law firm.

According to the DNA, as a result, Darius Vâlcov obtained several assets, including three gold bars, which weigh 3 kg, a golden frame painting, bearing a Renoir signature, a painting bearing a Jean Cocteau signature and a wooden painting signed by Aurel Acasandrei, as well as 90,000 dollars and 1,323,850 lei.

The investigators inform that the money and the goods were deposited in a safe.

This second request filed by the DNA in Vâlcov's case, will arrive in the Parliament soon.

On March 15th, Darius Vâlcov handed prime-minister Victor Ponta his resignation from the position of Finance Minister, but Ponta initially said that he would remain a minister until the completion of the new Fiscal Code.

After the DNA announced it was requesting Vâlcov's arrest, the prime-minister announced that he has approved his resignation and that he would present a new nomination for the Ministry of Finance to president Klaus Iohannis within the shortest delays.