Cost of Private Jets Rented by Nordis for Ciolacu and Vicol

Ciorba-Vicol couple find out today if they are arrested for 30 days or not.

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The report prepared by DIICOT prosecutors in the Nordis case, sent to court together with the arrest request for Laura Vicol and Vladimir Ciorbă, also contains data on the expenses made by the two spouses on private flights with rented planes and helicopters for various destinations.

Among the flights identified by the prosecutors are those that had Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and other PSD leaders on board. According to the data collected by the prosecutors, the two flights to Madrid and Nice, with Marcel Ciolacu as a passenger, cost almost 80,000 euros.

DIICOT prosecutors have identified seven flights with private aircraft (planes and helicopters) rented by the Nordis company, which they claim were made for exclusively personal, pleasure, not business purposes.

Among these are two flights that the press revealed had Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu on board.

One of the flights, Bucharest – Madrid – Bucharest, took place between May 3-5, 2022. The flight document published for the first time by G4Media.ro shows that passengers were Sorina Stan (Docuz), Marcel Ciolacu, Elena and Alfred Simonis, Sorin Grindeanu, Laura Vicol and her husband, Vladimir Ciorbă.

According to the DIICOT report, for the flight on the Bucharest – Madrid – Bucharest route from 03 to 05.05.2022, the amount of 34,900 euros (172,671 lei at the exchange rate of 4,947 lei/euro) was paid, as shown in the invoice (…) dated 03.05.2022 issued by ION TIRIAC AIR SRL, to NORDIS TRAVEL SRL.

Another flight identified by DIICOT took place on the Bucharest – Nice – Paris – Nice – Bucharest route, from 27 to 30 May 2022. Marcel Ciolacu was again on the plane, according to the revelations of G4Media.ro, which published the list of passengers: Marcel Ciolacu and his son, Filip, Sorin Grindeanu and his son, Mihai, Alfred Simonis, Laura Vicol and his son, as well as Vladimir Ciorbă and George Ivan.

According to the DIICOT report, the amount of 42,700 euros (211,036 lei at the exchange rate of 4.942 lei/euro) was paid for this flight, as shown in the invoice (…) dated 27.05.2022 issued by ION TIRIAC AIR SRL to NORDIS TRAVEL SRL. In total, the two flights cost 77,600 euros.

Marcel Ciolacu repeatedly denied that he flew on the private plane with Laura Vicol, until evidence published by the press made him admit it. He gave a series of incomplete explanations and claims that he paid for his own plane flight. Finally, Marcel Ciolacu stated that he wanted to do “an act of arrogance” with his son, to fly on a private plane to see a Formula 1 race.

Vladimir Ciorbă, Laura Vicol’s husband, declared, upon leaving the Bucharest Court of Appeal, that he did not harm anyone and did not pay bribes to gain advantages. He claims that a travel agency took care of the planes rented for Nordis by politicians and that he did not give gifts, but each politician paid for his ticket in full.

“People who complain that we cheated them and there are some here, but there are not that many compared to the number of clients. I understood from the prosecutor at the hearing, 114 compared to 2,500 promises and contracts signed in the last 6 years. However, there are 100 people. I did not cheat them, I did not give bribes, I do not do anything like that. I do not deal with denunciations and bribes, let the world understand. The Sinaia case is a special case. After the file goes to court, I will detail it”, declared Vladimir Ciorbă.

The main shareholder of Nordis company, Vladimir Ciorbă, added: “The rented plane, one, two, three, ten, were rented by the Nordis Travel travel agency. That agency contracted a plane, not once, several times, for many other people, as well as for me”. “Each passenger on those famous flights, by the way, paid their own fare. Not that we paid it together. Each one had a bill. These gentlemen, politicians, my wife’s colleagues at the time, paid theirs in full. I would not have allowed myself to give a gift to such politicians who hold such positions. I had no advantage from the political environment,” Ciorbă also declared upon leaving the Bucharest Court of Appeal.

The Vicol-Ciorbă couple spent 5 million euros on luxury cars and 1.5 million euros on private flights

Laura Vicol and Vladimir Ciorbă will find out on Wednesday whether they will be placed under preventive arrest or receive a more lenient measure. The judges remained in their decision on Tuesday evening, after a court hearing that lasted several hours. On the other hand, DIICOT announced that 11 people were detained in the Nordis case, including Vicol and her husband. Two other people are being investigated in this case under judicial control. Following the searches, prosecutors seized over 50 computer systems and data storage devices, sums of money, and luxury items, including watches, jewelry, and handbags.

DIICOT prosecutors claim that Laura Vicol and Vladimir Ciorbă went on luxury and pleasure spending sprees from the money of people who were harmed by the Nordis company, paying no less than 1.5 million euros on flights with private planes or helicopters to holiday destinations in the country and abroad – Nice, Mykonos, Madrid, Paris, the Danube Delta.

In addition, they allegedly spent almost 5 million euros on luxury cars – Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls Royce.

The prosecutors claim in the report sent to the court that the members of the Nordis network spent exorbitant amounts from the Nordis company funds, at their own discretion, on goods and services that have no connection with the company’s business, exclusively for personal benefit.

“Even if not all of these expenses have criminal relevance in terms of the crime of embezzlement, their exposure is important in revealing the way in which, cynically and in contempt towards customers, on the one hand, the members of the group, constantly, invoked in the explanations provided to customers, regarding the failure to comply with the construction deadlines and delivery of housing units, financial difficulties, the increase in the price of construction materials. On the other hand, they launched into luxury and pleasure expenses that are not incurred for the purpose of carrying out economic activity, according to art. 25 of the Fiscal Code. Thus, expenses for the acquisition of flights (commercial and private) worth no less than 1,511,208 euros and 805,984 lei were identified, through NORDIS TRAVEL SRL, of which 857,796 euros and 691,948 lei were private flights. We would like to point out that all these expenses were not made from the tourism company’s funds, but from Nordis Management funds, funds made from clients’ money,” the investigators say in the report.

Specifically, Nordis Management purchased services from Nordis Travel, and Nordis Travel purchased private jet rental services from various companies in the field.

“From this category, the expenses for private flights (both airplane and helicopter) constitute acts of embezzlement, since, analyzing the destinations, data and persons who benefited from them, it was found that they have absolutely no connection with the economic activity of the Nordis group (promoting real estate projects), but are made exclusively for private vacations, participation in private events, for the personal benefit of the spouses Ciorbă Vladimir and Vicol Ciorbă Laura Cătălina. In the destinations of Nice, Mykonos, Madrid, Paris, etc., destinations that result from the documentation provided by the operators, no real estate fairs or other events of this type, business meetings in the interest of the company or any other endeavor related to the business of the Nordis group were identified,” the prosecutors explain.

 

Where did the Vicols and their relatives fly?

The costs for the purchase of such exclusive services are extremely high, as shown by the invoices in the case file, with some examples given in the report: For the flight on the Bucharest – Mykonos – Bucharest route, from 18 to 21.06.2021, the amount of 19,500 euros was paid (97,940.35 lei at the exchange rate of 5.022 lei/euro), as shown by the invoice (…) issued by TOYO AVIATION SRL, to NORDIS TRAVEL SRL

For the flight on the Bucharest – Nice – Bucharest route, from 18 to 21.08.2022, the amount of 31,500 euros was paid (153,874.35 lei at the exchange rate of 4.884 lei/euro), as shown by the invoice (…) dated 18.08.2022, issued by ION TIRIAC AIR SRL, to NORDIS TRAVEL SRL

For the flight with the route Bucharest – Nice – Paris – Nice – Bucharest from 27 – 30.05.2022, the amount of 42,700 euros was paid (211,036 lei at the exchange rate of 4.942 lei/euro), as shown in the invoice (…) dated 27.05.2022 issued by ION TIRIAC AIR SRL, to NORDIS TRAVEL SRL

For the flight with the route Bucharest – Madrid – Bucharest from 03 – 05.05.2022, the amount of 34,900 euros was paid (172,671 lei at the exchange rate of 4,947 lei/euro), as shown in the invoice (…) dated 03.05.2022 issued by ION TIRIAC AIR SRL, to NORDIS TRAVEL SRL

For the flight with the route Bucharest – Timişoara – Madrid – Timişoara – Bucharest from 09-10.03.2022, the amount of 38,700 euros (191,527 lei at the exchange rate of 4.949 lei/euro) was paid, as shown in the invoice (…) dated 08.03.2022 issued by ION TIRIAC AIR SRL, to NORDIS TRAVEL SRL

For the flight with the route Bucharest – London – Bucharest – Nice – Bucharest from 20 – 23.05.2021, the amount of 52,900 euros (260,601 lei at the exchange rate of 4.926 lei/euro) was paid, as shown in the invoice dated 13.05.2021 issued by ION TIRIAC AIR SRL

For the flight with the route Bucharest – Danube Delta – Bucharest from 10 – 11.04.2021, the amount of 55,294 lei was paid, as shown in the invoice issued by DASSON HELICOPTERS SRL to NORDIS TRAVEL SRL.

The purchase of cars, especially luxury cars (niche brands – Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls Royce) generated expenses of 19,336,134 lei and 965,391 euros. After the completion of the leasing contracts, part of the cars were alienated, receiving the amount of 6,022,440 lei. Therefore, almost 5 million euros were spent in only 4 years on luxury cars.

Prosecutors’ Transcripts Reveal Vicol-Ciorba’s Lavish Spending

DIICOT prosecutors accuse Laura Vicol, in the over 500-page arrest report, consulted by G4Media, of “only showing contempt for the damaged clients, given that, being aware of the criminal origin of the amounts acquired, she quickly exhausts them through opulent and extravagant spending in a very short period of time”.

The transcripts in the report consulted by G4Media reporters include discussions about the opulent spending of the Ciorbă-Vicol couple, about their debts to third parties or clients, about the resale of the apartments, but also about how Laura Vicol claims that she was informed by “a good friend” that she was to be targeted by DIICOT searches.

She changed her mobile phone and hid goods that could have constituted evidence, DIICOT prosecutors claim in the report. The transcripts also include the name of Sorin Blejnar, definitively convicted for a bribe of 12.5 million lei that he allegedly took when he was the head of the Tax Office.

DIICOT prosecutors show in the report that Vicol took advantage of her status as a public figure by taking positions in the public space, especially through social networks or in private discussions, to distance herself from Nordis’ criminal activity and to give the impression that she is the victim of abuse by the authorities:

“The defendant has recently tried (…) either to distance herself from the criminal activity of the NORDIS group, or, together with her husband, Ciorbă Vladimir-Răzvan, to accredit the thesis of deliberate abuses against her and her family, with the aim of destroying her image and reputation,” the prosecutors show.

DIICOT also accuses Vicol of manipulating her close friends and relatives, turning them into “simple financial vehicles”:

“The defendant does not hesitate, in order to achieve criminal goals, to use and manipulate close people, including family members, transforming them into simple financial vehicles, which denotes a lack of scruples in achieving the objectives, giving added gravity to the facts,” the report states.

Prosecutors also say that, for Vicol, the facts she is accused of constitute “a way of obtaining a livelihood easily and, certainly, that the state’s repression will be minimal, considering the achievement of values ​​protected by law by harming the general interests of the state and, subsidiary, of citizens and the business environment.”

In one of the transcripts, from December 13, 2024, the name of Sorin Blejnar appears, the former head of the Tax Office, definitively convicted for a bribe of 12.5 million lei that he took, say the magistrates, when he was the head of the Tax Office. Nordis representatives consulted with Blejnar regarding the points of view that they were going to send to the tax authorities, in the form of appeals to various conclusions of the institutions, the prosecutors note in the report. They also show that the points of view received de facto validation from Laura Vicol, although she had no capacity in the Nordis companies and no contractual relationship with them.

The transcripts include a conversation in which two people discuss expenses, the resale of an apartment, and the division of certain sums of money:

OANA OPREA: And then, when they saw they didn’t get the money…

ZAHARIA MIHAELA: Oh… that’s bad, this is really terrible…

OANA OPREA: Yeah, you still have to wait legally another 60 days from the deadline. So, theoretically, they gained six months. And today, they resold the apartment you had terminated, got more money, you see, and didn’t give you your share! That’s what they tried to do with me too, that’s why I got mad about those 10,000 euros!

ZAHARIA MIHAELA: “Oh my God, but where the hell did all that money go, Oana?”

OANA OPREA: “Eh… In Laura’s closet, in Vlad’s cars, in everyone’s jewelry!”—a fragment from the transcript reveals.

ZAHARIA MIHAELA: “But that much?”

OANA OPREA: “Well, think about it, gosh! I took this much, he took that much, little by little! Over time—salaries, Sanda’s house, my apartments, Emanuel with the kids, trips, vacations, parties, city breaks, and those… what do you call them…”

In another conversation intercepted by DIICOT prosecutors, Laura Vicol speaks with a woman about how she was “destroyed” for “an election campaign” and how she was allegedly informed that prosecutors would conduct searches.

WOMAN: I watched the show, I liked it.

VICOL CIORBĂ LAURA CĂTĂLINA: You liked it?

WOMAN: Yes, I liked it.

VICOL CIORBĂ LAURA CĂTĂLINA: Yeah, well, I have to start speaking out because, anyway, during those months, no one believed me, and even now, they’re still taking meat from my fridge, but at least not as much as before.

WOMAN: Yeah… you realize you have to carry everything, everything that gets associated, that’s just how it is…

VICOL CIORBĂ LAURA CĂTĂLINA: Yeah, but it’s not right. I even posted on my Facebook page—then that person from insolvency, the one handling my husband’s company, spoke out. They ruined both of us, me and my husband, they destroyed us, they wiped us out.

WOMAN: …yeah.

VICOL CIORBĂ LAURA CĂTĂLINA: Yes, all for an election campaign. But the truth always comes out. The thing is, they took our image, our dignity, our reputation, our money. And on Thursday, I found out—one of my good friends, who works somewhere, told me to prepare because they plan to take him from the house, just like with that other scandal, to discredit him so that no matter what we say, we won’t be believed anymore.

In another transcript, Laura Vicol tells Dan Moraru, who called her, that she wakes up every morning at 6:00 AM because she heard that DIICOT searches were coming:

DAN MORARU: Yeah, I don’t know your husband, but from what I’ve seen…

VICOL CIORBĂ LAURA CĂTĂLINA: Sir, he’s not a thief…

DAN MORARU: …he has no fear, no fear at all.

VICOL CIORBĂ LAURA CĂTĂLINA: He has nothing to fear. He walks with his head held high, how can I put it…

DAN MORARU: Yeah.

VICOL CIORBĂ LAURA CĂTĂLINA: But we’ve been waking up at six every morning since we were told that DIICOT was coming to take him from the house. That’s a whole different story.

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