Finance minister Eugen Teodorovici has said that the legislation on recovery the prejudices in the criminal files should be amended and the defendants should cover the prejudices instead of serving prison sentences. ”The state must recover the money, I don’t think that putting people in jail is a solution. I have talked with many people from Europe and US in the past days, where the state has the main goal of recovering the money and not sending a person in prison. For maybe this way you are closing down a major business, employees become unemployed, instead of recovering the money,” Teodorovici told B1 TV private broadcaster.
“It’s not a wish to save someone, if he is not paying he is going to jail. We must have a clear situation with all structures that have the part to recover the money, maybe a law amendment is needed. It’s a political decision after all,” the minister added.
Teodorovici gave the example of a Romanian citizen established in the US, who had a business in the construction works and who was charged with some deeds and he ended up negotiating with the state to cover the prejudice.
“In his case, the state established that USD 3-4 M had to be recovered, he negotiated with the state, he said he had two million dollars, so he didn’t go to jail, the state recovered as much as it could. Look at the famous football players charged with evasion, did they go to jail? If you tell someone that he is going to prison, will he pay the damage anymore?”, Teodorovici argued.
Anti-corruption head Laura Codruta Kovesi said at the DNA activity report presentation on Wednesday that some institutions don’t bring any civil actions in the criminal files to recover the prejudices.
“The EU funds embezzlement has doubled in the past two years. One third of the defendants have embezzled European money. The EU fund fraud intended for the countryside is thus affecting the poor regions,” Kovesi explained.