Senate Speaker Tariceanu cancels his departure to the European ALDE Congress after the appearance of the DNA case . The criminal prosecution request has reached the Senate

The Senate’s Speaker and the Chairman of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) Calin Popescu Tariceanu has cancelled his departure to the European ALDE Congress held in Madrid. The decision comes after the appearance of the case opened by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) according to which the ALDE Chairman is accused of taking USD 800,000 as bribe from an Austrian company, sources from inside the party stated for MEDIAFAX. “The Chairman (Calin Popescu Tariceanu – e.n.) has cancelled his departure to Madrid”, the quoted sources stated.   DNA’s request on the criminal prosecution on Tariceanu’s name has reached the Senate   DNA’s request regarding the approval of the criminal request on Calin Popescu Tariceanu’s name has reached the Senate, which is going to decide in this respect, the quoted sources stated. The request was sent by the General Prosecutor Augustin Lazar. DNA has officially announced that the Senate’s Speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu is accused of receiving almost USD 800,000 from the representatives of an Austrian company, in order for that company to conclude a number of addenda to a commercial agreement, the money being used in the electoral campaign. “The prosecutors are conducting an investigation related to suspicions on committing corruption deeds for covering certain electoral campaign expenses with amounts of money from a company which is suspected to have obtained important commercial agreements with the Romanian state. The file was made in 2018, as a result of unifying three criminal cases, of which one was took by the DNA prosecutors upon the Austrian judicial authorities’ request. Specifically, a dignitary is suspected to have received, indirectly, during the period 2007-2008, material benefits amounting around USD 800,000 from the representatives of an Austrian company, in exchange for the efforts made by him in the exercise of his position, so that a number of addenda to a commercial agreement run by the company will be concluded. The amount allegedly represents a fee of 10% of the value of these addenda and was used for the benefit of the dignitary, being transferred according to some fictitious agreements concluded with several offshore companies”, the DNA prosecutors stated in an answer for MEDIAFAX. According to the quoted source, the investigation in this case is also related to other persons for complicity in bribery; as for the dignitary, who currently is a senator, the criminal prosecution for taking bribe is conditioned by the approval of the Senate. “In this respect, the Chief-Prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate sent to the General Prosecutor of P.I.C.C.J. the required documents to notify the Senate, which is going to decide on this. The approval requested for the senator in this criminal case is needed in order to fully conduct the criminal prosecution and to give him the possibility to prepare his defense within a legal procedural framework”, DNA also added.   Senator Manda explains why he received request for prosecution of Senate Chairman Tariceanu   Senator Claudiu Manda of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) has explained that he took over a request from the anti-graft prosecutors for the prosecution of Senate Chairman Calin Popescu-Tariceanu on Thursday as deputy chairman of the Senate as Tariceanu was scheduled for a trip these days. He added that the case file drawn up by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) has 73 volumes, each containing between 190 and 300 pages. “The reason why it came to me and not to the other deputy chairs is that on November 6 we decided that today and tomorrow and the next week, when he is on a trip, the exercise of his duties as chairman were to be published in the Official Journal and it was me to deputise for him, that is why the request came to me. Secondly, given that this is a subject that directly concerns Mr Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, there was no way that the filing and these documents would get to him; they reached me directly. I tabled a resolution with the Standing Bureau, signed November 7, 2018. These documents will reach the Standing Bureau of the Senate where we will have to decide. Procedurally, the decision of the Standing Bureau will be to send all these documents to the Judicial Committee, which will prepare a report to be presented to the plenary session. Between 15:10 o’clock and 18:30 o’clock, when I could not confirm that such a request was made, it was the time that the 73 volumes were received. I understand that’s a whole procedure. Stock is taken on each page, which is then filed and sealed, and all these documents which as far as I understand will be sealed at the Judicial Committee, and then, when the committee is informed, they can be unsealed, discussed, seen and we will get a report before the Judicial Committee,” Manda said at the Parliament House. He mentioned that the documents would be presented to the Standing Bureau under seal. “Someone of the staff came to my office presenting the notification and summary; I wrote on it ?to the Standing Bureau, signed November 7, 2018,’ with the intention of the documents to go to go to the Standing Bureau. I had reason to inform [PSD national leader] Mr Liviu Dragnea,” said Manda.   Calin Popescu Tariceanu on criminal probe request on his name: During the Government I led there was no payment to Microsoft   Referring to the criminal probe request issued on his name, Senate Speaker Calin Popescu Tariceanu stated on Wednesday, for Mediafax, that he has not received any notification. According to information made public, the start of a criminal probe against him has been allegedly requested in the Microsoft case. Tariceanu claimed that no criminal probe request on his name was received at the Senate until that moment, and that during the Government he led there was no payment to Microsoft. “These days it’s as if we are living the scenario of an operation that could be called ‘Rescue Lazar.’ An off-duty peasant finds a briefcase in a field and...

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