Iulian Dumitrescu, who wants to run for a non-mandate as head of CJ Prahova, remains under judicial control / He is accused of taking bribes over 3.2 million euros

The President of the Prahova County Council, Iulian Dumitrescu, supported by the PNL branch to run for a new mandate, remains under judicial control, after the Bucharest Court rejected his appeal on Wednesday. We remind you that Dumitrescu is accused by the DNA of having received a bribe of 16 million lei (over 3.2 million euros) from a businessman from whom he had asked 47.5 million lei.

Iulian Dumitrescu contested the decision of the DNA prosecutors to extend the measure of judicial control by 60 days.

On Wednesday, the Bucharest Court rejected Dumitrescu’s appeal, so he remains under judicial control.

Iulian Dumitrescu is being investigated by anti-corruption prosecutors for bribery and false declarations and is prohibited from exercising his position as president of CJ Prahova.

The Prahova PNL organization proposed Dumitrescu as a candidate for a new term at the Prahova CJ, citing that several mayors from the county support him. The PNL has not resolved the situation so far.

The accusations that the DNA brings to Iulian Dumitrescu: He allegedly asked for a bribe of 47.5 million lei, of which he allegedly received 16 million / Luxury holidays in Dubai, Mykonos or Nice

Iulian Dumitrescu was placed by the DNA under judicial control on February 1, for bribery and forgery in statements, and his sister and her husband are being prosecuted for complicity in bribery and forgery in privately signed documents, respectively complicity in taking bribery and false statements.

Also, the prosecutors seized the bank accounts of the three, a property of Iulian Dumitrescu and 19 properties of the sister and brother-in-law of the boss CJ Prahova.

The accusations brought against him by DNA:

• “With the help of his brother-in-law, between November and December 2022, Iulian Dumitrescu allegedly asked a businessman to purchase in exchange for the sum of 47,500,000 lei the shares held by his sister in a commercial company, a value overestimated compared to the real value of them, in connection with the performance of duties as president of the Prahova County Council (CJ).
• By December 4, 2023, Dumitrescu would have received, with the help of his two accomplices – his sister and brother-in-law – the total sum of 16,210,000 lei.
• At the time of their claim for money, one of the businessman’s companies would have had a contract with CJ Prahova in progress, and after the acquisition of the company from Iulian Dumitrescu’s brother-in-law, a new works contract with the beneficiary CJ would have been assigned Prahova.
• Following the claim, Iulian Dumitrescu’s sister would have falsely drawn up an account statement in the name of the traded company which contained unreal statements regarding the initial balance of the account, transactions and operations carried out on this account in the period January-February 2023.
• Even after claiming the money, in June 2023, for the submission to the fiscal body of the financial statements for the year 2022 of the traded company, Iulian Dumitrescu’s brother-in-law would have given an untrue statement.
• The two accomplices, although in 2023 they would no longer have any official capacity within the traded company, would have continued to manage sums of money from some of its bank accounts, part of which would have finally reached Iulian Dumitrescu, or as the case may be, it would have been used for his benefit”.

The DNA also accuses Dumitrescu of forgery in the asset declarations from 06.08.2021, 04.19.2022 and 06.15.2023, as the case may be:

• allegedly mentioned a lower value of the dividends received by his wife from a commercial company in which she was a partner, not having declared a total amount of 122,400 lei
• would not have mentioned loans received directly from the person mentioned in point 2 in the total amount of 2,575,000 lei
• he would not have mentioned the total amount of 3,451,881.82 lei, 50,075 pounds sterling and 24,000 euros spent for his benefit and the members of his family from the accounts of the natural person mentioned in point 2″.

According to the prosecutors, “the amounts in question were mainly spent on trips abroad and luxury goods purchased from outside the country, private high school, tennis lessons, rent in a luxury residential complex, etc.”.

In a year and a half, Iulian Dumitrescu would have spent almost 600,000 euros on luxury products and holidays, with Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the Maldives Islands, Capri, Mykonos and Nice on the list of destinations.

Rent of 6,000 euros per month for a luxury apartment rented from Cristi Chivu in the complex built by Țiriac

Iulian Dumitrescu lived in a luxury apartment of 800 square meters in the Stejarii district, the house being rented from the family of former footballer Cristi Chivu, political sources told G4Media.ro. According to the same sources, Dumitrescu would have paid a monthly rent of 6,000 euros. The Stejarii luxury residential complex in the north of the Capital was developed by Ion Țiriac.

PNL MEP Rareș Bogdan spoke, on Digi24, about the luxury apartment where Iulian Dumitrescu lived, saying that he did not think that the apartment was really that big, because he also stayed in the complex a few years ago and “there is no apartments of 800 square meters, with the exception of that of Mr. Ion Țiriac”.

• “Personally, I don’t think that in that complex, with the exception of Mr. Ion Țiriac’s apartment, there are 800 sqm apartments, nor Mr. Chivu’s. I don’t think they have 800 sq ft, but you can ask. The footballer Chivu, the famous footballer of the Romanian national team, was one of the eight buyers of an apartment in the complex built by the businessman Ion Țiriac, out of the 240 apartments.
• The rest of the apartments were never sold, his lordship chose to rent them.
• I understood that Iulian Dumitrescu, my party colleague, rented the apartment from Mr. Cristian Chivu, I don’t know how many square meters it has, I didn’t go to see. But I don’t think there are 800 sqm apartments in that complex, except for Mr. Țiriac’s.
• I lived there until 5 years ago. The apartments I occupied were not small: the first was 80 sq m, the second 112 sq m and the third, last, 154 sq m. I stayed in the last one when my children and wife came from Cluj. I don’t know of such apartments in that complex, but it’s easy to find out on the website, because they are rented, not bought,” Rareș Bogdan told Digi 24.

Who is Iulian Dumitrescu?

Aged 51, Dumitrescu was born in Prahova County, at Vălenii de Munte, but most of his political career took place in Călăraşi County.

Iulian Dumitrescu had two mandates as a senator from the PNL: 2012 – 2016, senator from Călăraşi, 2016 – 2020, senator from Prahova.

Before the local elections in 2020, he took over the head of the Prahova branch of PNL, establishing his domicile in the city of Plopeni. He ran for the Prahova County Council from the PNL, obtaining, in 2020, the support of the USR. The president of USR Prahova at that time, Mihai Polițeanu, publicly announced that the party would support Dumitrescu for the presidency of CJ Prahova.

Once he became head of the Prahova County Council, Dumitrescu supported his old collaborators in other important positions, whom he brought to Prahova from Călăraşi County, where they had held positions in the administration of that county, writes News.ro.

An example in this regard is Dumitru Tudone, former general secretary of the Călăraşi County Council, who moved to Prahova County to work in the local administration of this county. Tudone’s family is in Călăraşi, say sources close to the politician. At the time when he was elected vice-president of the Prahova County Council, Tudone was sent to court by the DNA, being later acquitted.

In the more than three years since he led CJ Prahova, Iulian Dumitrescu was accused of rarely coming to the office, his political opponents asserting, in informal discussions, that he leads the institution “by phone”.

Iulian Dumitrescu came into direct conflict with the mayor of Ploieşti, Andrei Volosevici, who in this mandate accused the president CJ Prahova of having taken several actions or rejected some measures with the aim of damaging the public image of the mayor of Ploieşti, although the two were elected under the logo of the same party.

Elected first vice-president of the PNL in September 2021, in the “winning team” of Florin Cîțu, Iulian Dumitrescu – one of the most influential leaders in the PNL – was in the books, in October 2021, for the position of Minister of Transport in the minority government PNL-UDMR with Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă.

In the summer of 2021, Iulian Dumitrescu and liberal senator George Stângă were registered by the DNA in the office of Cătălin Drula, then Minister of Transport, who they asked to keep in office the heads of the Romanian Association for Saving Human Lives at Sea and the River Administration of the Lower Danube Galați, as it results from the preventive arrest proposal submitted by the DNA prosecutors of the Constanța Court, consulted by G4Media.ro.

Loans of almost 150,000 euros to PNL and individuals

According to the most recent declaration of wealth, completed in June 2023, Iulian Dumitrescu owns together with his wife an apartment of over 150 square meters purchased in 2008 and one of 45 square meters purchased in 2005, as well as a Range Rover car from 2014.

In 2023, Dumitrescu mentioned, under loans, 45,000 euros given to the National Liberal Party, as well as three loans to individuals, totaling 170,000 lei and 70,000 euros.

President CJ Prahova has several accounts in lei totaling under 70,000 lei.

In the “debts” section, he mentions a loan of almost 127,000 euros at First Bank, due in 2036, as well as a loan from an individual, worth 180,000 dollars, contracted in 2012 and due this year.

In 2022, he collected 164,268 lei from CJ Prahova.

In 2020, he sold a plot of land for almost one million lei to a company, land located in Ilfov county, and on the same day he sold another plot of land located in Dâmboviţa county to the same company for 775,000 lei.

After the file opened by the DNA, Dumitrescu announced that he was resigning from all positions held in the PNL, because, he says, “the party has nothing to do with this case”.