The Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) is working on a criminal case against Nordis, according to Digi24 sources. The information about the prosecutors’ investigation emerged in the context of the Recorder’s investigation which revealed how the real estate business damaged hundreds of people.
The file, which is currently in the “in rem” stage (that is, the act is being investigated, there are no persons prosecuted), concerns the crimes of forming an organized criminal group and embezzlement. The investigation has been going on for more than a year, according to Digi24 sources.
Against the backdrop of the Nordis scandal, the PSD MPs submitted a legislative project to the Senate limiting the advance that real estate developers can request from their clients, for real estate under construction. The legislative initiative provides that the developer can request an advance of a maximum of 10% of the total price of the building.
Recorder wrote about the Nordis real estate project, “the business of a political-real estate clan with connections at the highest level.” The main associate of Nordis is Vladimir Ciorbă, the husband of the PSD deputy Laura Vicol, who on Tuesday resigned from the head of the Legal Committee of the Chamber. The Nordis business has been protected, until now, even by the legislation promoted by the Parliament.
The submission of such a project to amend the legislation does not imply its immediate adoption, the Senate being the first chamber notified. The legislative draft also states that the advance can be higher, but not more than 40% of the total price of the building, in the situation where the developer has taken out an insurance policy, in order to protect the investment. The amounts paid as an advance are paid into a special account of the company, dedicated to the respective building, and can be spent by the developer only for the purpose of developing the respective project, the legislative draft also states.
These provisions, if approved, will be added to Law 10/1995 on construction quality.
PM Ciolacu: We adopted legislation from France and Germany
The amendment to the construction quality legislation was announced by Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu at the start of the Government meeting, when asked to comment on the Nordis scandal, which also involves the husband of PSD deputy Laura Vicol.
“We took legislation from France and Germany, formed a working group in Parliament with Mr. Simonis, and they will come up with a legislative proposal. In France, for example, you are not allowed to charge more than a 10% down payment on a building that hasn’t been constructed yet. Or they use the insurance system. I think it’s appropriate to amend the law in this regard,” said the Prime Minister.
In France, the maximum down payment is 5%, not 10%, as Ciolacu stated.
On the other hand, PNL calls on PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu to urge his colleagues in the House of Deputies to urgently vote on PNL’s bill regarding a maximum down payment to real estate developers, submitted back in 2019. PNL claims that the project is being blocked by PSD, specifically in the Legal Affairs Committee of the House of Deputies, which until Tuesday was chaired by Laura Vicol.
The PNL initiative states that a real estate developer cannot demand more than 10% of the property’s cost as a down payment or reservation fee from a buyer without first signing a pre-sale agreement, in authentic form, with that person, and without notarizing that pre-sale contract.
PNL also asserts that if the project had not been blocked by PSD in Parliament, the Nordis scandal would not have occurred.
“This is an initiative by Liberal parliamentarians, submitted in 2019, adopted by the Senate, which, among other things, stipulates that a real estate developer cannot request more than 10% of the property’s value as a down payment, and that the money can only be spent with the approval of the construction’s technical manager,” reads PNL’s statement.
Nordis scheme
Nordis was supposed to be the most spectacular real estate project in Romania in recent years, but the evolution of this business has taken on all the hallmarks of a pyramid scheme, with hundreds of defrauded people and millions of euros missing from the developer’s accounts, according to an investigation published by Recorder on Monday.
In recent years, millions of euros have flowed into Nordis’ accounts, but most of the promised residential complexes have remained only on paper and in advertisements. Through aggressive marketing campaigns and by exploiting major weaknesses in Romanian legislation, Nordis collected large sums in advance from people who, despite having paid in full, never received the promised apartments, according to the Recorder investigation.
Recorder uncovered strong evidence that some apartments were sold multiple times to different people.
Romania is a true legislative paradise for real estate developers who sell apartments in the project phase. Romanian laws allow these companies to collect even 100% of the value of unbuilt apartments in advance, impose no restrictions on how these funds are spent, and do not require developers to take out insurance that could compensate customers in cases of force majeure.
By comparison, in France, an initial down payment of more than 5% cannot be collected, the money must go into a special account for construction, and developers are required to take out insurance to protect clients.
The laws that favor such real estate frauds should be amended in Parliament, but the Nordis affair is filled with political connections at the highest level.
The main associate of Nordis is Vladimir Ciorbă, and his wife is Laura Vicol, PSD MP and head of the Legal Commission in the Chamber of Deputies. This committee has a key role in the legislative process in Parliament. Basically, Vicol should change the laws that allowed her husband to run this whole fraudulent scheme.
I thought Ciorba was a soup!!!