Update – Darius Vâlcov, State adviser to PM Dăncilă, sentenced to 8 years in jail. PSD’s Deputy Secretary General: ‘We are being hunted’

Darius Vâlcov, State advised Premier Dăncilă, was sentenced on Thursday to eight years in prison with execution.

According to the ruling, Valcov was sentenced to 4 years for influence peddling, 6 years for money laundering, 2 years for financial operations incompatible with the official positions. The sentences merged and he was sentenced to the highest punishment plus an increase, resulting in a 8 years sentence.

The ruling is not final.

The judges also decided the confiscation of the amount of RON 6,200,000.

In the same file, Minel Prina, former mayor of Slatina, was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in jail, whereas Lucian Petruţ Şuşală (former driver of Darius Valcov) to 2 years suspended sentence, with a surveillance of 5 years.

Darius Vâlcov, former mayor of Slatina Municipality and former Minister of Finance, is accused of influence peddling, money laundering and financial operations or trade acts incompatible with the official positions, antena3.ro reports.

Reportedly, he requested from a construction company 20% of the value of public contracts during the period in which he was a mayor.

At the latest hearings on January 9, a National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) prosecutor urged the judges to condemn the defendants in this file to jail sentences aimed at the maximum by law, as well as the confiscation of goods found during searches, including three gold bullions and 172 paintings.

PSD’s Secretary General, shocked: “We are hunted in an unspeakable manner’

Social-democrat Deputy Secretary General, Codrin Stefanescu, reacted to the sentence by saying he is shocked. “Eight years is the sentence in any European country for armed attack against a bank, with victims, for kidnapping,” he said.

“We know very well, from Darius and from the lawyers that in this file such a decision could not be reached. In no way. I believe we are hunted in an unspeakable way,” Codrin Stefanescu said.

He added: “At the High Court there is still Ionut Matei. (former Vice-president. The ruling in Valcov’s file was made by the panel of judges of the ICCJ including: Silvia Cerbu, Simona Carnaru and Maricela Cobzariu). He is the guarantor of the secret protocol between DNA, the Supreme Court and the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), who made me leave the courtroom in the Adrian Nastase lawsuit, under the motivation that my looks defy the court,” Stefanescu said for ziare.com.

“How can I have confidence? Eight years is the sentence to armed robbery of a bank, with victims, for kidnapping. I don’t know if it was about a machine gun and an attack on a fiscal office,” Stefanescu added.

State adviser

Darius Valcov was appointed as state adviser in the working apparatus of PM Viorica Dancila at the end of January, according to a decision made by the Premier and published by the Official Gazette.

Both ruling coalition leaders, Liviu Dragnea (PSD) and Calin Popescu Tariceanu (ALDE) have sprang in Valcov’s defence, praising his professional expertise.

Dragnea said at the time that the appointment as PM’s adviser is no surprise, as he is “a man of rare value” from the economic perspective who has contributed a lot to drafting the ruling programme. Asked about Valcov’s legal problems, Dragnea replied: “Mr. Darius Valcov has the right to live and walk freely and as long as he has these advantages and wants to help, he is welcomed”.

In his turn, ALDE chairman Calin Popescu Tariceanu, said that Darius Valcov is “competent”, arguing that 70% of the politicians have criminal files, a fact which Tariceanu accused is due to “a movement to purge the elites”.