Iulian Dumitrescu, criminally prosecuted by the DNA, submitted his candidacy for a new mandate as president of the Prahova County Council

Iulian Dumitrescu, prosecuted by the National Anticorruption Directorate for bribery, on Wednesday submitted his candidacy from the PNL for a new mandate as president of the Prahova County Council.

“It was not a simple decision, but, out of respect for the people of Prahoven and for the local elected officials, I decided to run for a new mandate and to provide continuity at the level of the County Council. Together with these people – mayors, vice-mayors, local and county councilors -, we managed to do in 3 years in Prahova what was not done in 30 years before”, transmitted Iulian Dumitrescu, according to a press release of PNL Prahova.

Nicolae Ciucă: “It’s a party strategy”

Asked last week about Dumitrescu’s intention to run, despite the criminal problems, PNL president Nicolae Ciucă avoided making too many comments.

“It’s a party strategy that you let me manage as I think is best”said Ciuca.

3 million euro prize

Iulian Dumitrescu is prosecuted by the National Anticorruption Directorate for bribery. The PNL “Baron” de Prahova is accused of having claimed, between November and December 2022, to a businessman the purchase in exchange for the sum of 47.5 million lei, an overvalued price, of the shares held by his brother-in-law in a company for awarding contracts. The prosecutors claim that, helped by his sister and brother-in-law, he would have received the total sum of 16.21 million lei.

According to investigators, although in 2023 he would no longer have any official capacity within the traded company, Dumitrescu’s sister and brother-in-law would have continued to manage sums of money from some of its bank accounts, part of which would have finally reached the first vice-president PNL.

The prosecutors also accuse Dumitrescu of not mentioning in the wealth declaration expenses and loans of over 1 million euros that he allegedly made from his sister’s account for trips abroad and luxury goods purchased from outside the country, private high school, tennis lessons and to pay rent in a luxury residential complex.

In the case, the prosecutors instituted precautionary measures on the bank accounts of the three defendants, on a real estate belonging to the defendant Dumitrescu Iulian and on 19 real estates belonging to the sister and brother-in-law of the president CJ Prahova.

Photo source: Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea