Resigning DIICOT chief prosecutor arrested for 30 days

Dorin Cocos would have allegedly claimed EUR 10 M to weigh in the overrated retrocession that threw Alina Bica in jail.

Chief prosecutor of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), Alina Bica was arrested for 30 days on Saturday, after a 10-hour session of ruling the arresting decision. A few hours later, Bica resigned from DIICOT helm. The Superior Council of Magistracy is expected to convene on Monday morning to decide on blackball Bica out of magistracy.

We remind you she is charged with abuse of office in a corruption file relating to an illegal retrocession of a 13 hectares land in Plumbuita, Bucharest, overrated with EUR 61 M. The land came into possession of business Gheorghe Stelian in 2011. DIICOT ex-chief was state secretary with the Justice Ministry at that time and member of the National Retrocession commission.

The case also pointed to controversial businessman Dorin Cocos, Elena Udrea’s former husband. Cocos, who is now serving a pre-trial arrest in the Microsoft file, was an acquaintance of Gheorghe Stelian. A witness told prosecutors that Cocos would have asked EUR 10 M to make appropriate representation to the members of the retrocession commission so that his friend Gheorghe Stelian should get a favorable decision and receive the EUR 61 M compensations. According to the anti-corruption prosecutors, Stelian bought rights under dispute for the 14 hectares land in Plumbuita district in 2010 from Dino Sinigalia.

“(…) Dorin Cocos guaranteed everything would be OK…After an assessor has been appointed GS (Gheorghe Stelian) gave him RON 100,000 in an envelope. When the assessor finished the report, the total value of the land got to about RON 377 M and Dorin Cocos asked EUR 10 M to make appropriate representation to the officials of the National Authority for Property Retrocession (ANRP) to solve this case…” said the witness heard by the prosecutors.

Photos of Alina Bica and Elena Udrea in Paris were disclosed before the first round of presidential elections. Udrea and President Basescu denounced the former PMP presidential contender would have been trailed by the intelligence services, but some voices unveiled that the real target was in fact the DIICOT head.

Udrea denied her involvement in this case in a message posted on Facebook, also saying she has never talked with Alina Bica about her activity at ANRP. “I don’t know anything about overrated retrocessions where Alina Bica and my former husband Dorin Cocos are allegedly involved. I am not related to this case whatsoever and I am no involved in it. My friendship with Mrs. Alina Bica is publicly known, I have never hidden it and it started following the collaboration inside the Cabinet whose members both us have been,” Udrea said.