The PSD mayor of Mioveni, caught red-handed while returning EUR 10,000 bribe, detained

The mayor of Mioveni, Ion Georgescu, who was caught red-handed by the anti-corruption prosecutors when he was returning 10,000 euros of a 30,000-euro bribe received from a doctor to be employed at the hospital in Argeș, was detained on Wednesday night for 24 hours for influence peddling.

“In the autumn of 2022, Ion Georgescu would have accepted from a person (witness in question) the promise to remit an amount of 30,000 euros, of which he would have received, in December 2022, a first installment of 10,000 euros, in order to exerted the influence he claimed to have on some decision-making factors in the management of the Mioveni City Hospital, so that they would order the employment of a relative of the witness as a doctor.

The rest of the money was to be handed over to the mayor, according to the agreement, after the actual placement of the respective person in the medical unit.

Since until now the mayor would not have been able to keep his “promise” made to the witness, the latter would have asked the suspect to return the amount of 10,000 euros previously remitted to him. In this context, on Wednesday, in the headquarters of the Mioveni town hall, Ion Georgescu gave the witness the sum of money mentioned above, on which occasion the crime was established”, reads the indictment by the National Anti-corruption Directorate.

Ion Georgescu, in office since 2006, is accused of demanding a bribe of 30,000 euros, of which he received 10,000 euros.

The mayor arrived at the DNA headquarters for hearings on Wednesday evening. Asked by a reporter why he is being accused, the mayor replied: “I didn’t take, I gave“, without offering any other explanations, according to Digi24.

Georgescu’s defense attorney claims that the mayor actually borrowed the money last year and is now recovering it. “The mayor denies it and I certainly don’t think it happened that way. It is up to the court to establish the evidence administered in the case. Today he called him to return the sum of 10,000 euros to the whistleblower that he had taken as a loan last fall,” said lawyer Ingrid Alexandrescu, according to ProTv News.

The hospital in Mioveni is the first built from scratch in the last 30 years in Romania. Its reception took place in September 2019, but the unit is not working even now with all sections open. The hospital in Mioveni has 6 floors, 250 beds and numerous departments, including an Emergency Department, Intensive Care and an operating room with 4 rooms.

The construction of the City Hospital in Mioveni began in March 2016, and the financing was fully provided by the PNDL program, the investment being 68 million euros.

The hospital has 23 wards, but only nine are open, and the recruitment contests were canceled during the pandemic, according to a report published by Digi 24 in September. “The situation is desperate. The mayor said there might be no more money. Of course, medicine is expensive, and especially medicine for infectious diseases and intensive care is very expensive. The expenses we had were with many zeros”, said the manager of the hospital, Horia Trăilă.

PSD Argeş leadership voted, on Wednesday evening, to exclude from the party the mayor of Mioveni.

The whistleblower

The whistleblower of the PSD mayor of Mioveni Ion Georgescu is the head of the Pitesti Local Police, Nicolae Valerică, to whom the mayor asked for 30,000 euros, of which he received 10,000 euros, to hire his daughter at the local hospital, according to HotNews.ro.

According to the cited source, Nicolae Valerică would have intervened with Ion Georgescu to help him hire his daughter, a doctor, at the hospital in Mioveni, and the mayor would have asked him for 30,000 euros, of which he received 10,000. Nicolae Valerică is general director of the Pitesti Local Police.

However, Ingrid Alexandrescu, the mayor’s lawyer, argued that the 10,000 euros is actually a loan taken by the mayor from the one who would be his friend for 30 years.