Horațiu Potra, new raids amid 2024 campaign funding probe

The Prosecutor General’s Office announced that its prosecutors carried out almost 50 searches in five counties on Wednesday morning, targeting several crimes, including actions against the constitutional order, false statements regarding the sources of financing of the electoral campaign, public incitement, initiating or establishing an organization with a fascist, racist or xenophobic character, and failure to comply with the weapons and ammunition regime.

The case also targets mercenary Horațiu Potra, a close associate of Călin Georgescu. Investigators say Potra and other former members of the Foreign Legion founded a fascist organization and incited violence. In addition, officers are also investigating how the December election campaign was financed.

This concerns 47 searches coordinated by prosecutors from the Prosecutor General’s Office in the counties of Sibiu, Mureș, Timiș, as well as in Ilfov and Cluj. Several homes of individuals, as well as the headquarters of associations and commercial companies, are targeted. At the same time 27 people are targeted by the investigation.

The targeted crimes are partly related to the electoral campaign for last year’s presidential elections, annulled by the Constitutional Court, and are among the most serious crimes – actions against the constitutional order, violation of the weapons and ammunition regime, illegal use of pyrotechnic articles, but also acts of promoting persons guilty of crimes against humanity or initiating anti-Semitic associations.

Last but not least, acts of falsification in statements regarding the financing of the electoral campaign or the communication of false information are also targeted.

There are suspicions that are related to what happened during last year’s electoral campaign for the presidential elections, but also subsequently, acts that target, among others, Horațiu Potra, close to Călin Georgescu, according to Digi24 information.

Horațiu Potra is not in the country, sources from the investigation say. He is said to have gone abroad a few weeks ago.

Horațiu Potra has also been targeted by such actions by the General Prosecutor’s Office in connection with suspicions that prosecutors have. There have been other searches at his place – the last one just last week, in a tax evasion case.

“The investigations target criminal activities carried out between 2022 and 2024, consisting of the establishment of several financial circuits based on the use of bank accounts held by several legal entities, coordinated by two individuals, for the purpose of transferring sums of money that could come from committing tax evasion crimes,” state representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice in a press release.

According to HotNews.ro sources, the two individuals are Horațiu Potra and his brother. Prosecutors say that a company controlled by the Potra brothers allegedly collected approximately 7,200,000 US dollars from Africa, money that does not appear in tax returns.

Checks are also being made in connection with the electoral campaign, after an investigation was opened into the campaign run by Călin Georgescu. He declared zero expenses, but the authorities had a series of suspicions in this case and opened a criminal investigation. The arrests this morning are related to this fact, but also to other suspicions of violation of the law that the investigators have.

$1.5M Safe, Weapons Found in Horațiu Potra’s Home Raid

Prosecutors found, following the raids carried out on Wednesday, large sums of money hidden in a safe located under the floor in Horaţiu Potra’s house. Investigators also discovered weapons and combat equipment, according to Romanian mass media.

Prosecutors found, in Horaţiu Potra’s home, a safe embedded in the floor and hidden by the parquet, containing a large sum of money. The safe contained one and a half million dollars, sources close to the investigation told G4Media.

Prosecutors also found accounting documents indicating that Potra holds a total of over 6 million dollars in cash. The safe was cast in concrete and was camouflaged under the floor, the cited source writes. During the searches carried out on Wednesday in this case, weapons, edged weapons and combat equipment – ​​vests, helmets, backpacks were also discovered.