Controversial businessman SOV, suspected of EUR 1 mln payment promise to politician

The controversial businessman and former media mogul Sorin Ovidiu Vintu (SOV), who was jailed last week for financial crime, was taken in front of the prosecutors on Thursday.

Vintu might face charges in a new file for buying influence. In the same case, which is investigated by the anticorruption prosecutors at DNA, the name of a politician has emerged, according to judicial sources quoted by the media.

According to Digi24 TV station, the names of the Senate head Calin Popescu Tariceanu and of the deputy governor of the National Bank of Romania, Bogdan Olteanu, are in this file.

According to judicial sources, the former media mogul had promised to pay EUR 1 million to a politician in order to get support. The media reported that the money would have been promised so that Liviu Mihaiu would get the appointment as governor of the Danube Delta.

Tariceanu took to Facebook after his name appeared in the media reports. He said that he doesn’t “comment any rumors”, suggesting that denunciations against him aim to ruin his political party’s chances to get into Parliament after the elections.

“Assuming that my name is really mentioned in one way or another in the denunciation of any arrested, condemned, investigated, suspected or defendant etc, I expect, once the elections approach, more arrested, convicted , investigated , suspected, defendants etc, to make accusations against me in exchange for the promise of DNA prosecutors that they will get a less harsher treatment before the law and they will remain with the stolen money eventually,” wrote Tariceanu, who is on trial in a separate case, in which he is accused of perjury and of favoring of the perpetrator.

Vintu was sentenced this month to six years and two months in jail for dilapidation in the Rompetrol file. He was previosuly jailed in other cases.

Liviu Mihaiu said that he was the governor of the Danube Delta for almost five months between 2008 and 2009 and that he doesn’t know anything about any potential transaction for his appointment in this role.

“Maybe I was a good excuse for the former mogul to (also) control the head of the Chamber of Deputies,” wrote Mihaiu on Facebook.

“None of those involved in this ‘South-American’ scandal have ever called me to get anything from me. Because these were the conditions I asked from the Tariceanu Government in order to accept this job,” according to Mihaiu, who added that the judiciary has to do its job in this case.
Ovidiu Posirca

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