Searches are being carried out in the counties of Brașov, Iasi and Neamț. The investigators also visited the Regina Maria Military Hospital in Brașov and the Emergency Hospital “Sfântul Spiridon” in Iasi. The doctors are being investigated after they operated on several heart patients and allegedly fitted stents taken from deceased people.
More than 170 patients would have received stents, pacemakers and defibrillators from deceased people, the cardiac devices being settled by the National Health Insurance House by entering false codes, according to judicial sources cited by TVR.
The judicial sources cited by stiriletvr.ro say that one of the doctors from Iași would have coordinated the activity of 3-4 other doctors, who would have helped him especially in collecting the devices from the corpses. Another doctor from Brașov is suspected of having collected cardiac devices from the corpses and sent them to Iași, where the surgeries were performed. With part of the money obtained, around 90,000 euros, the doctor from Iași would have built a cabin in a protected area. Stimulators taken from deceased patients would have been billed to the Health Insurance Company by entering erroneous DRG codes.
The police officers from Economic and the prosecutors of the Supreme Court carry out, on Friday, 24 searches in the counties of Iasi, Brasov and Neamt in a complex case in which investigations are carried out for abuse of office, taking bribes, giving bribes, intellectual forgery, use of forgery, deception, material falsification in documents under private signature and the continuation of the execution of the works after the order to stop them by the competent control bodies.
The activities take place at the registered offices of some companies and at the residences of natural persons presumed to be involved in the criminal activity or at buildings owned by them. Home searches will also be carried out at the offices of a municipal town hall, some hospitals and an NGO, informs a press release from the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police (IGPR).
At the same time, eight economic controls will be carried out at the headquarters and workplaces of some commercial companies, and four ordinances will be implemented that ordered the collection of documents from the people involved in the criminal activity.
“The investigations resulted in the reasonable suspicion regarding the commission of several crimes of bribery, bribery and forgery, committed by medical personnel or persons from their entourage, as well as indications regarding the fact that these medical personnel would have committed more many surgical interventions, in violation of work procedures and indications for the use of cardiac medical devices (cardiac stimulators and defibrillators), which affected or endangered the bodily integrity, health or life of some people, their patients”, says the cited source.
Violations of the legal provisions in the field of construction were also found, regarding a building located in an area classified as a protected area.
After carrying out the home searches, the teams established together with the control bodies from ANAF – General Anti-Tax Fraud Directorate – Suceava Regional Anti-Tax Fraud Directorate will carry out specific controls, with a view to taking legal measures regarding the operations carried out by the targeted commercial companies, in the field of production and the distribution of medical equipment and devices.
Also, nine arrest warrants will be executed for the persons investigated in the case and several witnesses will be summoned for the hearing, the activities to be carried out at the headquarters of the IPJ Iaşi.
Police officers from the IGPR – Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Directorate of Economic Crime Investigation, as well as from the economic crime investigation services, criminal investigations, special actions and forensics of IPJ Braşov, IPJ Iaşi, IPJ Neamţ and IPJ Suceava.
Judicial sources revealed that, with the money obtained from the crimes, the doctors targeted by the searches would have started the construction of houses in a protected area, offering bribes to the local authorities to obtain the necessary approvals.