Archbishop of Tomis, Teodosie Petrescu, sent for trial by DNA Constanta for misleading the judicial bodies, false testimony and abuse of office

Archbishop of Tomis, Teodosie Petrescu, has been sent for trial by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) Constanţa for misleading the judicial bodies, false testimony and abuse of office in continued form.

According to a DNA press release, in the same file are sued Neculai Poalelungi, employee of the Tomis Archbishopric, for misleading the judicial bodies, false testimony, intellectual forgery, favouring of the perpetrator, and complicity to the abuse of service in continued form, and Ciprian Stoichin, church administrative counsellor with the Tomis Archiepiscopate, for complicity to abuse of office in continued form.

The prosecutors claim that, in the context of being prosecuted since February 3, 2017, for damages against Agency for Payments and Intervention in Agriculture (APIA) amounting to RON 1,392,964, “in the attempt to create a favourable situation for his criminal suit” on October 10, 2017 the Archbishop of Tomis allegedly filed a denouncement by which he accuses three natural persons (two of them employees of the Tomis Archbishopric) and two legal persons, regarding the defrauding of European funds in 2016.

Actually, DNA charges Petrescu Teodosie, falsely blamed two employees of requesting and receiving European funds for 350 hectares belonging to the Tomis Archbishopric. Furthermore, the two are accused of concluding lease documents to third party companies and natural persons, for plots of land owned by the Tomis Archbishopric (overall 110 hectares in various locations). In support of the above mentioned, Petrescu Teodosie, with the support of Poalelungi Neculai, has filed statements and a new file, with false documents that allegedly supported the innocence of the persons.

The source says, during November-December 2017, after notifying DNA on these issues, Petrescu Teodosie, in bad-faith and unlawfully, decided to suspend the two employees from the positions with the Archbishopric and to suspend their wage rights, by two decisions issued following a report drawn by defendant Ciprian Stoichin (under the coordination of Neculai Poalelungi).

The file has been sent to the Constanta Court of Appeals.

Teodosie Petrescu, Archbishop of Tomis, was placed on October 16, 2016 under judicial control by the DNA for 60 days. Teodosie was charged with bribe taking and use in bad faith of documents or false statements, inaccurate or incomplete, in order to unlawfully get European funds.

Archbishop Teodosie is accused that, along with others, used fake documents to the A.P.I.A. in order to receive European funds.

The suspects said they use certain agricultural areas for different crops of vines, but starting in 2010, on those agricultural areas there were not actually such crops. In this way, they obtained a total of RON 1,356,973 (approx. EUR 300,000) from the EU budget.