BUCHAREST, Romania — Prosecutors detained Romania's previous finance minister Wednesday on suspicion that he took bribes, including gold bars and a painting by French Impressionist Auguste Renoir, when he was mayor of a southern town.
Prosecutors said Darius Valcov had hidden the painting, three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of gold and stashes of cash worth $410,000 in a friend's safe from 2011.
He was detained for 24 hours.
Valcov resigned as finance minister on March 15 after prosecutors charged him with taking 2 million euros ($2.1 million) in bribes when he was mayor. He denies wrongdoing.
In another development Wednesday, a parliamentary vote ruled against lifting the immunity of a Romanian senator from the ruling party who prosecutors say is suspected of corruption.
Senators voted 79-67 in favor of lifting the immunity of Dan Sova, a former transportation minister, but fell short of the 85 votes required.
The vote was criticized by the U.S., British and Dutch embassies in Romania who said the legislature should not prevent anti-corruption probes.
Prosecutors want to arrest Sova on suspicion that as a senator he illegally earned 3.5 million lei ($870,000) as a lawyer in the privatization of several electricity companies in his constituency and destroyed computer files to cover his tracks. He denies wrongdoing.
After the vote, Sova left leadership positions he has held in the ruling Social Democratic Party.
Prosecutors in Romania have launched a series of high-level corruption investigations in the past year.
Romanians abroad have mobilized massively to vote in the second round of the country’s presidential elections. The vote in Diaspora started on Friday morning, and by Saturday evening (at 19:00), over 609,000 Romanians had already cast their votes. The turnout is almost 90% higher than the one recorded at the same time in the first […]
It's almost impossible to think about anything not related to elections this weekend but if you should need some distraction, there are options. Happening now is the European Film Festival, screening recent productions from the continent, very varied in theme, tone, and genre. The fest is playing Bucharest, Sfântu Gheorghe and Timișoara until Sunday and […]
Modernization work is ready to start at Bucharest’s Henri Coandă International Airport, also known as the Otopeni Airport, following an investment of over RON 112.4 million (some EUR 22 million) led by the National Company Bucharest Airports (CNAB), news agency Agerpres reported. The company...
Paris Hilton, who will be present at IntenCity Craiova, a festival organized this summer between June 26–29, sent a message to her fans in Romania. "I'm excited to perform at the IntenCity Festival on June 28. It's going to be so much fun! See you there," Paris Hilton told those who will come to Craiova. […]
AMAIS (Association for Alternative Methods of Social Integration) has officially launched the SeeYou mobile app, an innovative platform that connects visually impaired individuals with volunteer guides who can accompany them during everyday activities - from medical appointments or shopping to park strolls or cultural events. SeeYou is the first mobile app of its kind in […]
SAI Broker, a Romanian investment management company part of BRK Financial Group, listed a new ETF on the Regulated Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) on May 16, under the stock symbol BKBETETF. The ETF aims to fully replicate the structure of the main index, BET. The BET index reflects the evolution of the […]
