Romanian Prince Paul Caught by Police in Maltese Resort. Romania to Seek His Extradition

Prince Paul Phillipe of Romania, one of the famous fugitives from our country, was caught in Malta. According to the sources, he was in a resort, on vacation, from where he was picked up by the police. He had been on the run for almost four years from Romania, where he was sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison.

He is at the police and is to be detained by the police there and the procedure will be similar to the one already carried out by the Romanian authorities in France. They will ask for his handover to Romania, this extradition process will start again and it remains to be seen if Prince Paul will be sent to the country, where he has a sentence of 3 years and 4 months in prison, in the case of the illegal retrocession of the Băneasa Royal Farm. It is this conviction from December 2020, when he was also prosecuted.

Paul Phillipe was located in a resort in Malta following the information sent by the Romanian police, he was with his wife, and he did not resist at the time of capture, the head of the Romanian Police, Benone-Marian Matei, said on Monday.

In June 2022 he was caught in France, the extradition procedure was completed at the beginning of April. On April 6, the representatives of the Ministry of Justice sent, regarding the European arrest warrant in the name of Paul-Philippe de Romania, that the court in France definitively rejected his surrender to the authorities in our country, citing the illegal composition of the court panel from Romania. “More precisely, the fact that one of the judges would not have taken the oath at the inauguration“, according to the MJ.

Although the case prosecutor from the French Public Prosecutor’s Office declared an appeal, he did not justify the appeal within the deadline and, therefore, he was denied the deadline, and the decision of the first instance remained final.

The Minister of Justice Alina Gorghiu stated, on Thursday, about the extradition of Prince Paul from Romania, from France, that she still has no answer from the French counterpart related to his situation, whose surrender was definitively rejected by the French justice due to a procedural flaw . “I expect the minister to be able to ask the system what happened in that case,” added Gorghiu.

On May 17, 2023, the Ministry of Justice presented a situation of persons wanted or prosecuted for the execution of sentences ordered by Romanian courts, as well as the countries where they are located and the stage of the procedures carried out to bring them to the country. Thus, according to the situation presented by the representatives of the Ministry of Justice, Prince Paul is being prosecuted internationally based on a European arrest warrant issued by the Braşov Court of Appeal on 18.12.2020 for the execution of the sentence of 3 years and 4 months in prison for committing the crime of buying influence, complicity in abuse of office – damage: 9,523,769 euros.

Prince Paul Phillipe of Romania was located on the territory of France, the procedure being ongoing, the French authorities requested the sentence of conviction – merits and appeal – translated into French, conditions of detention and other information related to the conduct of the criminal process – after a short period in which he was detained in preventive detention in Paris, he was released on bail.

In December 2020 The High Court of Cassation and Justice has pronounced the final verdict in the file of Baneasa Farm retrocession. Prince Paul was sentenced then to 3 years and 4 months in jail, but he had already fled Romania by the time the ruling was pronounced.

The prejudice in this file mounts to EUR 140 million.

The file was related to the restitution of some plots of land from the former royal Baneasa Farm and from Snagov Forest to Paul Philippe of Romania (aka Prince Paul of Romania), with the Israeli defendants Tal Silberstein, Beny Steinmetz, Moshe Agavi and others being involved in the retrocession procedures or about the purchase agreements related to those plots of land.

Benyamin Steinmetz allegedly was the leader of a network for illegal retrocession and the one who paid the money to buy influence, the Romanian prosecutors say.

In order to get support for the group’s interests, defendant Benyamin Steinmetz organised private parties in Israel or Monaco, inviting high ranking Romanian politicians, MPs and government members, consequently taking advantage of their names to prove his influence in relation with other people such as Prince Paul and public employees in charge with retrocession, the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) says.

The prosecutors further say that the political influence of Remus Truica and Tal Silberstein, former head of governments’ advisers, was the very reason for which the two were co-opted in the group. The Romanian businessman failed to meet his partners’ confidence.

“Remus Truica has, through intermediaries, acquired a part of the land returned and also acquired a share of the proceeds as loan to Reciplia SRL. Under these circumstances, Remus Truică was forced to cede his parts in Reciplia LTD, being excluded from the criminal group,” the indictment reads.

The Reciplia company focused the interests of everyone involved. Prince Paul of Romania sold 80% of the rights in dozens of properties, including the ones he regained – the Snagov Forest and the Baneasa Farm.

The court decided in late December 2016 to partially lift legal restrictions for several persons prosecuted in the Baneasa Farm illegal retrocession case. Among them, there is also Prince Paul of Romania, businessman Remus Truica, journalist Dan Andronic, Andrei Marcovici, Nela Păvăloiu, Niculae Dima. Remus Truica and Prince Paul of Romania are allowed to leave Romania without the prosecution body’s previous consent.

Businessman Truica Remus and Prince Paul of Romania were indicted on May 18, 2016 by the DNA prosecutors in the illegal restitution file.

Remus Truica was charged with influence peddling, money laundering, establishment of an organized criminal group, bribery and complicity to abuse of office.

Prince Paul of Romania was accused of influence buying, money laundering and complicity to abuse of office.