Bucharest Tribunal judge, on remand for taking EUR 220,000 bribe to acquit defendants in the ‘Transfers’ file

Judge Geanina Terceanu from the Bucharest Tribunal has been taken on remand by the anti-corruption prosecutors on Thursday night for allegedly taking bribe of EUR 220,000 during 2009-2012 in order to acquit the eight football men convicted in the ‘Transfers’ file.

Terceanu was heard late on Thursday after previous searches have been conducted at the Bucharest Tribunal earlier in the day.

Judicial sources said that the judge’s sister and husband have also been brought to the National Anti-corruption Directorate on Thursday evening, as there were suspicions that part of the bribe was held by the judge’s sister at her place without knowing the money were deriving from a crime.

The sources also revealed that Terceanu would have received the money through some agents, who were not lawyers.

Geanina Terceanu decided to acquit the eight defendants in this file on April 3, 2012. However, the ruling was challenged by the DNA prosecutors at the Bucharest Court of Appeal, which on November 12, 2012, gave sentences ranging from three to eight years in prison for the eight football men, but some of them with suspension.

Subsequently, the High Court of Cassation and Justice ordered the case’s retrial on the ground the Bucharest Court of Appeal convicted the defendants based on the old evidence through which they escaped prison. Following retrial, all eight defendants went to prison in 2014: Cristi Borcea and Ioan Becali got six years and four months in jail, Victor Becali – four years and eight months, George Copos – three years and eight months, Mihai Stoica – three years and six months, Gigi Netoiu and Jean Padureanu – three years and four months and Gica Popescu – three years and one month.