Fiera starts the negative campaign: “Nobody Dan won by stealing and lying”. Neculai Ontanu, who was definitively convicted of bribery, was applauded from the stands

The PSD candidate for the Capital City Hall, Gabriela Firea, begins her campaign with violent attacks on Nicusor Dan. She accused the current general mayor of theft at an event attended by Neculai Ontanu, the former mayor of Sector 2, who was definitively convicted of bribery, in order to support her.

“I am convinced that the people of Bucharest who live in Sector 2, like the residents of the entire Capital, are fed up with misery, carelessness and imagined culprits.

We no longer need experiments in Bucharest! We were all convinced, from the experience of the last four years, that the mayors who won votes by stealing and lying were not able to work for the people, for the people of Bucharest.

I accepted to enter the race for the Mayor of the Capital for the people, for the people of Bucharest! It deserves more than they had in the last four years and we proved together with the social democratic team that we put people first!”, Firea wrote on Facebook, posting several photos from the event where he made these statements.

Neculai Ontanu, the former mayor of Sector 2, also appears in these photos.

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In 2021, Neculai Ontanu was definitively sentenced by the High Court of Cassation and Justice to 3 years of suspended prison for committing the crime of bribery, in a case in which he is accused of having received, through interpositions, a land worth of 1.4 million euros from the businessman Cristi Borcea, to facilitate the reconstitution of ownership over several lands totaling 83,500 square meters.

Other convictions in the file: Toma Sutru (former secretary of the Local Council of Sector 2) – 3 years suspended for bribery and money laundering; lawyer Loredana Radu – 3 years with suspension for complicity in bribery and money laundering; Aurel Radu – 3 years suspended for complicity in bribery and money laundering.

On the civil side, the court ordered the special confiscation of 1.4 million euros from Aurel Radu and 400,000 euros from Loredana Radu, as well as 1,877,750 euros from Toma Sutru.

Neculai Ontanu was sent to court in June 2016 by the DNA on the charge that, between 2006 and 2007, he accepted the promise of material benefits from a beneficiary of some litigious rights (Cristi Borcea, the whistleblower in the case), in order to instead facilitate the procedure for the reconstitution of the ownership right over several plots totaling 83,500 square meters, located within Sector 2.

According to the DNA, in the same period, Neculai Ontanu claimed and received, indirectly, an area of ​​1,500 square meters with an estimated market value of 1,441,495 euros (on Barbu Vacarescu Street in Sector 2 – a residential area) and which was transferred by Cristian Borcea, free of charge, by means of fictitious sales-purchase contracts, to two interposed persons, indicated by the former mayor. The two people are Loredana Radu and Aurel Radu.

The land received by the lawyer Loredana Radu as a bribe for Neculai Ontanu would then have been resold to the former deputy prime minister Gabriel Oprea. After the sale of the land to Gabriel Oprea, Loredana Radu obtained from the City Hall of Sector 2 a construction permit for a building with 10 floors, which was later erected.

“Based on the request made by Ontanu, on November 13, 2007, at the same public notary, two sales and purchase contracts were concluded by which the ownership right over a 500 sq m area with a market value of 650,995 euros was transferred from the land located on Barbu Vacarescu str. to Aurel Radu and on an area of ​​1,000 sqm from the same lot, with a market value of 790,500 euros to Loredana Radu. The price stipulated in the contract signed with Aurel Radu was 500 euros/sqm, respectively the minimum value according to the Guide with indicative prices of real estate made by the National Union of Notaries Public in Romania (total price 250,000 euros). In the contract concluded with Loredana Radu, a price 10 times lower was stipulated, namely 50 euros/m2 (total price 50,000 euros)”, the prosecutors claim.

DNA shows, regarding the method of payment, that in both situations it was mentioned that an advance of 5,000 euros would have been paid on an unspecified date, and the difference would have been paid in cash on the day of the conclusion of the contract.

“In reality, no amount of money was paid, the two contracts were fictitious, the lands being transferred to the account of the bribe promised to mayor Ontanu, upon his indication. In order to hide the criminal origin of the property and the identity of the final beneficiary of the benefit obtained in the manner described above, on December 17, 2008, the defendant Radu transferred the ownership right over the 1,000 square meter plot of land to a relative, who was also close to the mayor, based on a transaction in which a price of approximately 5 times lower than the market value of the building was mentioned”, the investigators noted.

Also, according to the DNA, Aurel Radu transferred, on February 6, 2008, the ownership right over the 500 sqm plot to a buyer in good faith with the amount of 1,400,000 euros and withdrew the amounts thus obtained in cash, and then – transferred to the estate of a person whose identity could not be established until this moment.

“During 2007 – 2008, Toma Sutru, as secretary of the town hall, also in order to facilitate the procedure of reconstituting the right of ownership over the land claimed by the complainant, claimed and received from him two million euros. The two agreed to disguise the bribe in the form of a sale-purchase contract for a land belonging to a relative of the defendant, located in a peripheral area, with arable land regime and crossed by high voltage lines, so that it was not susceptible for economic uses”, say the prosecutors.