Second richest man in Romania prosecuted for bribery after his lawyer commits suicide

Dan Adamescu was indicted on Thursday, May 22, by prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), for supposedly bribing two judges. On Wednesday, the prosecutors arranged searches at Adamascu’s home and on Thursday he was called in for questioning.

According to Forbes Romania, Adamescu has a personal fortune of EUR 900 million, making him the second richest business man in Romania. He controls Astra Asigurari, as well as Unirea Shopping Center, Intercontinental hotel in Bucharest, the IBC Modern office building which hosts the Bucharest Stock Exchange, and the Rex hotel in Mamaia. He also has business in the media industry, where he owns the Medien Holding trust (owner of Romania Libera).

Adamescu is believed to have bribed judges Ion Stanciu and Elena Roventa with some EUR 5,000, EUR 15,000 respectively, in December 2013. In return, the judges were expected to rule in favor of Adamescu in several insolvency cases his companies were involved in. Four of the judges suspected to have taken bribes have already been arrested earlier in the week.

Adamescu’s lawyer, George Dumitru, played an important part in DNA’s case against the four judges. According to stirileprotv.ro, Dumitru confessed everything he knew about his client on Monday (May 19) and provided documents that showed how the money was transferred from Adamescu to the judges.

A couple of hours after the interrogation was done, George Dumitru threw himself in front of a subway train at Universitate Station.

Romania’s largest insurance firm Astra was placed under special administration by the country’s Financial Surveillance Authority (ASF) in February and is currently managed by consultancy firm KPMG. ASF decided to suspend the shareholders and the management of Astra, in order to help the firm recover financially, according to the authority’s release.