The DNA is conducting 41 searches in the Port of Constanța and other locations (Eforie, Bucharest, Năvodari, etc.), according to Info Sud-Est reporting. The investigation is targeting influential local businessmen, influential former customs officers in the Port and one of the heads of PSD Constanta, Ion Dumitrache, as well as George Vishan, commercial director in the Port of Constanța, the one who makes the decisions when the current director of the port is missing and a close relative of the former local administration Radu Mazăre – Nicușor Constantinescu.
The prosecutors’ investigation also reaches the head of PSD Constanța Ion Dumitrache, Vasile Costea, a businessman known locally as being close to the former Radu Mazăre-Nicușor Constinescu administration, etc. The investigation also reaches George Vișan, the commercial director of the Port of Constanta, very close to the former Mazăre-Constantinescu administration. All are known locally for their influence in the Port of Constanța. See details here.
Pilcă and Dumitru would have given, prosecutors allege, about 100,000 euros for benefits to berth 120. The money went to undercover DNA officers who collected millions of euros from the defendants in several stages over several months, prosecutors allege.
- Aurelian Pilcă and Eugen Bogatu have been in criminal trouble before. Pilcă was acquitted in 2011, and in another case, Eugen Bogatu was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison in 2015. G4Media and ISE showed in September 2023 how DNA has only finalized one case with a prison sentence in the last 20 years. In other cases, courts have handed down acquittals or suspended prison sentences.
Pilcă and Bogatu’s „negotiations” allegedly took place at the Fishermen’s Bay in Agigea, owned by the son-in-law of PSD mayor Cristian Cârjaliu, who was indicted by the DNA in 2020 for abusive expropriation and acquitted in the first instance by the Constanța Court. On January 16, 2025, the Constanța Court of Appeals decided that the case should be sent back to the Tribunal for retrial. Read more here.
Costea and ABC Val
The prosecutors also reveal that Vasile Costea, head of ABC Val and one of the most influential local businessmen in the Mazăre-Constantinescu era, allegedly gave among the most important sums of money to DNA undercover officers.
- Vasile Costea’s best-known firm, ABC Val, has been a „subscriber” to public money since Radu Mazăre’s time. Read details here.
Prosecutors allege that Vasile Costea had the support of a close associate, an official in the company that manages the Port of Constanta, Cătălin Viorel Cristea, with whom he allegedly had a relationship of over 30 years.
Vasile Costea is a well known local businessman who has already been indicted for bribing the former head of the Court of Appeals of Constanța, Nicolae Stanciu, father of the former head of DNA Constanta, Mihai Stanciu. Vasile Costea and Nicolae Stanciu were acquitted in 2022.
Vasile Costea, DNA prosecutors allege, promised a bribe of €400,000, €100,000 on signature and €100,000 in installments.”
- „(…) We entered his office together and Cristea Viorel made the introductions. Next Costea Vasile said that it would be better if during the discussions the cell phones were in another room, at which point Cristea Viorel took everyone’s cell phones and took them to an adjoining room. At the beginning of the discussion, Costea Vasile told us that he hoped that everything would be conducted as between men, with seriousness, and at some point, the discussions would be only between me and him, asking Cristea Viorel not to get upset. Costea Vasile also told us that he periodically calls someone who „scans” his office in order not to have eavesdropping equipment installed. Further, Costea Vasile expressed his wish that, at the meetings we will have, we should not talk, but communicate in writing, and then tear up the notes and throw them in the toilet. We agreed together that future meetings should be held in other locations, excluding the company headquarters and public places. The discussions were held in order to facilitate the management of CNAPM S.A. to win tenders by Costea Vasile’s company, which gave indications on how these tenders should be organized, so as not to have problems in winning them. Also, Costea Vasile said that the auctions he will apply for must be financially attractive for everyone to win, hinting that he is willing to offer money in exchange for winning the auctions. Thus, Cristea Viorel said that for one of the tenders, the feasibility study is almost ready, and when it will be finalized it will not be published until the prices will not be established together with Costea Viorel. In this regard, Costea Vasile told me to write our phone numbers on little notes, we wrote them down and exchanged them, establishing that when we want to meet in a conspiratorial way, we should write messages to each other through Whatsapp, in the form of inviting each other out for coffee (…)”.
COSTEA VASILE: I come here and clean my house every week, okay? I never find anything. I found one and broke it, poor thing, but I put it back. It was a… it’s a metal. A metal bar, I think. I’m like, „man, what’s that beep…” /
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN DIMA: It must be … (unintelligible)… (the undercover DNA officer, ed. note).
COSTEA VASILE: I’m saying, „What’s making that beep, what’s making that beep?”. I took everything down. We couldn’t figure it out. It was next to an outlet. We pulled the plugs out, we went into the office. I’m like, „hey, it’s what… Here, open it, break it!” I took it out and I took it apart. They must have left a little piece of metal in… in the whole thing. But that doesn’t…that doesn’t mean that the moment we have something to discuss, we have to discuss it with our mouths.
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN DIMA: That’s what I’m saying…
COSTEA VASILE: Yes, we break, we write and … in our mouths and that’s enough.
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN: For example, I proposed to Viorel … by car, somewhere … not with the harbor’s car, God forbid…(…)
COSTEA VASILE: You know what happens? Whatever… safety is more important than anything. And more … than anything. And when I say than anything, I mean than anything. (…)”.
Prosecutors also accuse Costea of „a gesture of elegance” of 30,000 lei that he allegedly gave to the undercover DNA officer in order to collect faster an invoice of about 1 million euros from the Port of Constanța and emphasizing that he is willing to make similar gestures, according to investigators.
Prosecutors also allege that the businessman Vasile Costea promised the undercover investigator a total amount of approximately 1,500,000 euro, which was to be directed to public officials within the company that manages the Port of Constanța, in order to obtain „three public procurement contracts, as well as to amend a fourth contract in progress”.
Another name that appears in the investigation is that of George Vișan, commercial director at the Port of Constanța, a well-known local figure from the Radu Mazăre era, with close relations with the current leadership of the local PSD organization. He, DNA prosecutors say, allegedly agreed to share a bribe for the allocation of land to the undercover DNA officer:
” (…) DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN ALEXANDRU: …this man is going all the way. If we go down a long way with this guy….
VIȘAN GEORGE-GABRIEL GEORGE-GABRIEL: Yes, man! He’ll have another mic and a drink.
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN: No, no … [unintelligible]… he told me … [unintelligible]… that it’s a 15% investment. After that….
VIȘAN GEORGE-GABRIEL: Yes, OK! OK
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN: Did you understand me?
VIȘAN GEORGE-GABRIEL: OK, OK. Eee, now you’re talking, see that? …[he laughs]…
Also, at the end of the dialog, he tells the investigator DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN the way in which LILIAC DANIEL should remit the money:
„(…) DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN: Good, and then … [unintelligible]… Isn’t he in good faith!? Let him give it now, no?
VIȘAN GEORGE-GABRIEL: Half before…[unintelligible]…after…. (…)”
The dialog between the two continues by establishing the stages of land allocation:
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN: (…) But anyway, no… In how much time did he say to raise …[unintelligible]…. How, what’s …[unintelligible]… legal?
VIȘAN GEORGE-GABRIEL: Wait now! Uh… Well, I put them in committees, I make reports and they will go in front of the… the next C.A…. After it’s out of the C.A., there’s one more month until..
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN: So in January.
VIȘAN GEORGE-GABRIEL GEORGE-GABRIEL VIȘAN: Good, we are like this: First C.A’s in January.
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN: Yes.
VIȘAN GEORGE-GABRIEL: Realistic!
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN: Yes, yes, yes.
VIȘAN GEORGE-GABRIEL: We still have next week and then there’s the holidays, that’s it!
DIMA ALEXANDRU-CRISTIAN Aha.
VIȘAN GEORGE GEORGE-GABRIEL: Let’s say you’re going to report to him in January… The C.A.January it’s the C.A, February the auction. The auction. That’s the deadline, 30 days after we’ve signed everything in the C.A. Publication, whatever…
Thus, we find that VIȘAN GEORGE-GABRIEL is actively involved in the allocation of the two plots of land to LILIAC DANIEL (…)
Influence of local PSD leaders
The case is being investigated by DNA, the central structure, and the prosecutors’ accusations also reach Ion Dumitrache, head of the PSD municipality branch.
According to information from G4Media and ISE, Ion Dumitrache was constantly informed by the employees of the Port of Constanța about how certain actions were going, like a de facto head of the area.
It should also be noted that Felix Stroe and Ion Dumitrache continue to lead PSD Constanța after having lost the local and county elections for two terms (8 consecutive years) in favor of the PNL.
Prosecutors allege that Felix Stroe and Ion Dumitrache, the local PSD chiefs, „have a major influence in the appointment procedures in the positions in the CN APM Constanța”:
„(…) DUMITRACHE ION: Uh, uh, there’s, there’s also the Marina, but, uh… we’re discussing it there. I’m interested in…how is the problem, that there’s a rumor with CATANĂ, with something?
TEODORESCU MIHAI: What rumor about CATANĂ?
DUMITRACHE ION: That he would replace you?
TEODORESCU MIHAI: That you want to replace me. (…)
TEODORESCU MIHAI: Apart from Mr. Minister, who else do you think we should talk to, so that it… or to whom can you submit a discussion of this kind, so that…
DUMITRACHE ION: Well…TUDOSE …I met him, PAUL STĂNESCU, to talk…
TEODORESCU MIHAI: I mean…who do you think it would be ok to… (…)
DUMITRACHE ION: I support you all the way! Uh… FELIX called me a couple of days ago and told me that he met someone at the CPN, so… which I didn’t get to, uh… and the minister … (n.n. unintelligible)… and he told me about this, about the director… the operational director…to give him a man. And I said I wasn’t interested. I just want… this part of… to support. … (unintelligible)… I’m not interested.
TEODORESCU MIHAI: As for me… (…)
DUMITRACHE ION: I’ll take, take that upon myself… I’ll talk to him and tell him: „Hey, don’t meddle with the APC. Take your, you’ve put in your AN…ANR, etc. but…
TEODORESCU MIHAI: The ANR? But who took the ANR after all? I still don’t understand this move. Please believe me that I didn’t understand it. (…)”
TEODORESCU MIHAI: Good. Then, just so I know, can you…can you take care of things with FELIX?
DUMITRACHE ION: Well…absolutely.
TEODORESCU MIHAI: So that there are no discussions? And in Bucharest I understand, for the Stănescu wing, for the Tudose wing…
DUMITRACHE ION: Yes. But the president, you saw that it’s not…it’s not like that, and especially now, when we won the municipal elections, you can’t…! We beat the USR and AUR by 4%, Tudose said: „Hey, how did you do that?!” The day before yesterday I had lunch with him, with EDUARD MARTIN, with CRISTINA… And he says: „How did you do it, man, you gave us (…unintelligible…), we were watching and we couldn’t believe it!” (…)
DUMITRACHE ION: Come on, what… When we saw each other…uh…when I went to see mr. minister and he gave me… Those two seats in the C.A. I didn’t have (n.n. unintelligible) And one of them was given to CATANĂ and he said to BOGDAN „hey, get him out of there, he belongs to Constanța”. And this to ….next week let’s get busy and send two people to C.A.
TEODORESCU MIHAI: I told you last time (…)
Another plane of the discussion between the two is represented by the interest of DUMITRACHE ION that TEODORESCU appoint IFIMOV OTILIA to „acquisitions” or another important post / function within the CN APM Constanta:
„(…) DUMITRACHE ION: (n.n. unintelligible) Yes. What do you think of this OTILIA? Where….?/(…)
DUMITRACHE ION: Can’t she go back to where she was? Can’t she,,,,?
TEODORESCU MIHAI: Purchasing. Do you want that?
(…) TEODORESCU MIHAI: I don’t know, somewhere. We have two free seats. Do you want us to negotiate a director’s post for her, so we can relax?
DUMITRACHE ION: Well, why… that’s what we’re working on right now, but…
TEODORESCU MIHAI: Well, yes, but we both have to accept. I have to go with… to tell him, I can’t jump on… I have to go and tell him.
DUMITRACHE ION: We’ll go to Bucharest together.
(…) TEODORESCU MIHAI: Ask her what she wants from these two free ones, if she wants that one for projects, if she wants this one for port operations, if she thinks she can take them. If not, you know there’s this major discussion right now with the Trident contract and what’s next. I have a Memorandum that was just approved today by the government, in addition to other things, that approves me more positions, more… and I have to change the organizational chart. We discuss the organization chart together if you want…
DUMITRACHE ION: Yes. Well, it’s better this way.
TEODORESCU MIHAI: Yes. And… we create something nice and the story is over.
DUMITRACHE ION: (n.n. unintelligible) Me, if I’ve shook on it with you, you should know that I’m not particularly interested, even if (n.n. unintelligible) I were to come and put it together. I’m not interested. If I know that you… and I’ve shook on it, that I don’t have… I don’t have stuff to deflect like that and I’m not ever going to come. (…)
Head of the Coast Guard
The prosecutors’ investigation also includes police officer Ionuț Voinescu, head of the Constanța Coast Guard, who allegedly gave a bribe to „facilitate the conclusion of a lease contract on favorable terms for a piece of land belonging to the Constanța Coast Guard.”
- Read more details here.
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