Ex-District 1 mayor Daniel Tudorache placed under judicial control in mega corruption file

Daniel Tudorache, former mayor of Bucharest District 1 city hall, has been placed under judicial control on Saturday morning, after he had been heard by the anti-corruption prosecutors all night long. Investigators decided a bail of EUR 1 million on his name.

The National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA) has announced that the charges of influence peddling and money laundering are brought against Tudorache both in his capacity of former deputy mayor and also as a former member of Parliament.

Other two persons are criminally prosecuted in his file: the mayor’s former wife and another physical person in Tudorache’s entourage.

“During September 2016-May 2017, the person in the defendant Daniel Tudorache’s entourage would have pretended from a businessman a percentage of 10% of the value of a contract that the company of the business had with an institution under the authority of District 1 City Hall. In exchange for the money, that person promised to intercede for him, on behalf of the mayor, with certain civil servants so that the contract would go well (the payments should be made on time and the prices should be updated). In exchange for this influence peddling, the person in the mayor’s entourage would have received the sum of RON 105,000 cash, as well as the sum of RON 8,469 disguised in the payment of some fictitious bills issued by a company belonging ti the influence peddler,” reads the DNA indictment.

The investigators also say that there is a reasonable suspicion that Daniel Tudorache would have been the real beneficiary of the sums of money received by the person in his entourage.

DNA also adds that “during the time he was in public offices (2008-2018), Daniel Tudorache would have benefited of disproportionately huge sums of money compared to his legal incomes”.

“In order to hide the origin of the allegedly illegally obtained money , the mayor would have involved two other person (his wife and his housekeeper), who acted as the apparent owners of these sums of money, the purpose being to introduce this money in the civil circuit. Therefore, the money would have been used to pay trips abroad, expensive jewelry, luxury clothing both in Romania and abroad, cars, houses, private schools, lending money, bank deposits”, prosecutors say.

The mayor and his family would have bought with this money luxury jewelry, including diamonds, as invoices have been discovered for a EUR 58,500 ring, a set of jewelry of USD 64,225, a diamond ring worht EUR 80,000 and a diamond of EUR 190,000, another ring of EUR 65,000, a set of earrings and necklace of EUR 11,200.

Tudorache would have bought even a football club with this money, through his former wife.

Late on Saturday, Tudorache announced he is suspending himself from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), insisting that he is innocent.

“I am innocent and I hope Justice will bring light in this case as soon as possible. I don’t want to jeopardize the real chances the party has in winning the parliamentary elections. I have been a PSD member for 20 year (…) I have nothing to hide. I trust the judiciary system and I will actively contribute to finding the truth. Yet, I wonder: why there is so urgency in the case of some alleged deeds from 2008?”.