Former Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea was summoned to the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) on Wednesday to inform him that they are seizing his goods to recover the prejudice caused in the file where he faces charges of abuse of office.
The file relates to the purchase of a car from the budget of the Department for Intelligence and Internal Protection (DGIPI).
Prosecutors claim that on July 13, 2015, Gabriel Oprea, as Interior minister, with the help of the former head of the Department for Intelligence and Internal Protection (DGIPI), senior Police quaestor Nicolae Gheorghe and Pavel Gabriel-Nicolae, head of the Legal department, ordered to supplement DIPI’s budget with RON 410,000 and approved the purchase of an Audi A8 vehicle “with the alleged purpose to ensure the dignitaries’ protection.”
Anti-corruption prosecutors announced he had seized several buildings and plots of land in Bucharest, Ilfov and Giurgiu, belonging to Gabriel Oprea, Nicolae Gheorghe and Gabriel-Nicolae Pavel, all covering the damage of RON 410,000.
However, the anti-corruption prosecutors say that during August-October 2015, ex-Interior minister Oprea exclusively benefitted of the car, while the purchase of the car broke the legal provisions, which restrict such investments out of the operative funds of the Interior minister strictly to criminal prosecution actions of the corruption crimes.
Therefore, by allowing the purchase, Oprea would have caused a prejudice of RON 410,000 to the state budget.