The wealth statements of the eligible candidates AUR and S.O.S Romania for the European Parliamentary elections on the 9th of June contrast sharply with the public discourse of the members of the two extremist parties about the West, multinationals, foreign investments, banks or “patriots of the people”.
Are the “patriots” therefore deceiving their electorate when they propagate anti-globalism and anti-corporate discourse, while their candidates own shares or profit from transactions with multinationals? “A pertinent question,” answered one AUR candidate who says there are “good corporations”.
None of the AUR candidates we spoke to, and none of the party leaders, denied that there is a double standard between what the party says about cash and the West and what its members do with their dozens of bank accounts and investments with “globalists”.
AUR leaders downplayed the issue and told us they don’t have time for our “trifles” because they are in an election campaign. Another one called us out for calling them an extremist party. The AUR’s front-runner for the European Parliament elections on the 9th of June, Cristian Terheș, one of the strongest “globalist” examples on the extremist party’s list, told us that everyone is free to do what they want with their money and stressed that he is not an AUR member.
Diana Șoșoaca and Luis Lazarus, the first two S.O.S Romania candidates for the European Parliament, did not respond to Info Sud-Est’s request for a point of view on their party’s double attitude regarding wealth and corporate profits.
In the first episode of our series of articles on extremist parties running in the European Parliament elections on 9 June, ISE followed the violence, doctrine and public discourse of AUR and S.O.S Romania members and explained through the voices of specialists why these two political parties are extremist. The article, here.
Luxury patriots
Info Sud-Est analysed the declarations of wealth and interests of the top 10 AUR candidates and the top 5 S.O.S candidates (the maximum number of seats the two parties can win in the European Parliament, according to polls) which show that:
- 12 of the 15 candidates either have well above average incomes or assets, have received money from multinational corporations (in various forms: rents, advertising money, sales, etc.), own jewellery, luxury watches, art objects, have hectares of land, several apartments and/or houses, or have shares in companies of the “occult” that the two parties are against, such as, for example, Microsoft founded by Bill Gates;
- 2 candidates have “ordinary” income or assets (an apartment, land, a car, etc.);
- 1 candidate does not own any property or assets according to their asset declarations and only receives an MP’s salary and a child allowance.
In total, the top 10 AUR candidates and the top 5 S.O.S Romania candidates on the Europarliamentary lists own the following assets:
The assets and interests of AUR and S.O.S candidates are especially relevant in the context of the populist discourse of the two parties in times of crisis, of the demagogy of their leaders, who hint that there are simple solutions to enrich the Romanian population: either on the Robin Hood principle, with “money from the rich given to the poor”, or by nationalizing the assets sold by the state to “multinationals and the West that impoverish Romanians”.
The sovereignist, anti-globalist and anti-corporate discourse is promoted with AUR money on social media and in a web of party websites that give the impression of “independent” press publications, according to a Misreport analysis. According to the latest Expert Forum report on campaign financing for the June 9 election AUR paid almost 1.2 million lei for online propaganda.
Moreover, the way the lists for the 9 June elections were drawn up and the nomination of eligible candidates was one of the sticking points between party leader George Simion and AUR members who have been massively self-evacuating from the party in recent months. See details here.
In the most recent break with AUR, Andrei Tinu, son of former journalist Dumitru Tinu, announced that he is withdrawing from the race for the Mayor of Sector 2 of Bucharest, blaming the way the lists for councillors were drawn up: “Today the candidacies are final and no Republican colleague has secured an eligible post”.
One of the examples of demagoguery of AUR leaders on money and banks is the show performed by Simion in the Parliament, when he took his payment in cash form, and the anti-bank campaign conducted by the party representatives.
In reality, the AUR candidates eligible for the European Parliament, including Gheorghe Piperea, who became famous precisely for the lawsuits he has brought as a lawyer against banks, have a total of 34 bank accounts and two Revolut accounts, including one Bitcoin account.
This article is the first part of the analysis of the declarations of assets and interests of the AUR and S.O.S eligible candidates for the European Parliament elections.
This article is the first part of the analysis of the declarations of assets and interests of the AUR and S.O.S eligible candidates for the European Parliament elections.
The golden donors
AUR’s declared donors to the European Parliamentary elections are all candidates for potentially eligible seats.
Four of the top 10 AUR candidates have donated, loaned or given money to the party, totalling 3.15 million lei: of which 2.05 million lei from own income, 600,000 lei loan and 500,000 lei donations. The total amount of money given to the party for the campaign is the second highest after PSD (8.35 million lei in total).
The candidates who donated to AUR are Laura Gherasim (400,000 lei, 8th place in the Europarliamentary elections), Prince Șerban Dimitrie Sturdza (1.15 million lei, 6th place), Nicolae Vlahu (1.1 million lei in total, 9th place) and Maria Georgiana Teodorescu (500,000 lei, 4th place)
The “trifles” about AUR money
We asked George Simion how the list of candidates for the Europarliamentary elections was established, according to what criteria the eligible candidates were determined and how much their wealth counted in the order of their ranking.
Simion did not answer our questions, saying that “we are not credible journalists” because we call the AUR party extremist. See our arguments here.
Dan Tănasă, the party’s spokesperson, also refused to answer questions about the criteria on which AUR determined the eligible candidates, saying that party members are in an election campaign and have no time for our “trifles”:
“We are in an election campaign, we don’t have time for trifles. We are working to rid the country of thieves!”, said Dan Tănasă.
Claudiu Târziu, co-founder of AUR with George Simion, has a modest wealth declaration and is in second place in the European parliamentary elections, after Cristian Terheș who is the president of another party. Târziu did not respond to the ISE’s request for a comment on the criteria used to choose eligible candidates.
Cristian Terheș leads the AUR list for the European Parliament elections, but he is not a member of the alliance led by George Simion, but the president of the Romanian National Conservative Party. Terheș has, together with his wife, one of the most consistent declarations of wealth and interests and is rather an example of a “globalist” and not a “patriot” in the sense of the rhetoric of the party he represents.
I asked him if he feels he is cheating the AUR electorate he is running for because, for example, his wife owns securities and shares in two California firms and together they have 14 bank accounts, deposits or equivalent, including banks in California, when the AUR party has always had an anti-globalist and anti-banking narrative. Terheș replied:
- “I am not in AUR but in PNCR, which is in an alliance with AUR. What money I have in my accounts comes from my own income. I spent 17 years in the US before I was elected and my wife longer. You can dispose of the money you have as you wish, as long as you do it legally”.
Terheș lent his party (PNCR) €15,000 and his wife has investments of $10,000 with Fidelity, a US brokerage firm.
The wife also has $320,000 worth of Treasury Direct bonds (A bond or note is a document which certifies that its owner has participated in the formation of capital or the granting of a loan and which entitles him to receive dividends or interest.)
Terheș has an annual income of €93,000 as an MEP, and his wife $48,000 as a compliance manager at General Orthocare (Irvine, California).
Together they have four plots of land, two of which are extravilane (Sinmartin, Bihor, but it’s not clear why “0 sq m” appears on the right) and two intravilane (in Oradea and Zalău), three apartments (in Zalău and Oradea) bought between 2013 and 2019, a Toyota Camry manufactured in 2016 and a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross manufactured in 2020.
Terheș has six bank accounts, in lei and euros, and his wife has eight other accounts, in dollars, euros and lei, most of which are in Wells Fargo Bank and US Bank, two California banks. In total they have more than €220,000 in their accounts. Terheș moved to the U.S. in 2000, according to Recorder, studied and worked in California, then settled in Irvine where he lived for a time.
A priest by trade, Terheș is one of the most prominent political trainees who is now running for the AUR party: in 2012 he supported Traian Băsescu when the opposition tried to dismiss him for the second time, vehemently opposed Victor Ponta, joined the PNȚCD and ended up in the European Parliament on the PSD lists, which had a protocol with his party.
He is one of the AUR candidates with the most virulent attacks on the EU and one of the most consistent conspiracy agendas.
Last May he was criticised by fellow MEPs for his hate speech against transgender people, who asked Roberta Metsola, the president of the EU Parliament, to look into Terheș’s speech. In one of his most recent attacks on the EU, Terheș said Ursula von der Leyen was proposing a “Marxist on steroids” borrowing programme that “will bankrupt states”.
Note, however, the radical change in Terheș over the last 10 years. During the 2014 presidential elections, Terheș said that the ballot marked Romania’s direction towards the East, i.e. “totalitarianism”, or the West, Europe and the US, i.e. “freedom and progress”:
- “These elections chart Romania’s future direction: East or West. Towards Russia and China or towards Europe and the United States. Towards totalitarianism or towards freedom and progress. The outcome of these elections is crucial for the destiny of millions of Romanians, so it is imperative that they come out in large numbers to vote and decide on their own future (…)”
Claudiu Târziu is former co-president of AUR when the party had a bicephalous leadership and is second on the list for the European Parliament.
Târziu has a modest wealth statement, with a 59 sqm apartment, a 570 sqm plot of land, a Hyundai car, an annual income of 146,000 lei as an MP, and his wife owns the firm Security Marshall, established 27 years ago, where she earns 23,000 lei annually as legal adviser.
Târziu has a bank loan of €40,000 taken out in 2022 which he has to pay off by 2033.
The AUR leader is a member and president of the Rost Association, which aims to contribute to the “moral-spiritual and social-cultural rebirth of Romanians abroad”, vice-president of the M.O.R.E. Association and president of the Mihai Eminescu Institute for Conservative Political Studies, as well as a partner in the company Cămara Mănăstirii SRL, which deals with retail trade and is in insolvency.
Gheorghe Piperea has the most impressive fortune of the AUR candidates, after Prince Serban Sturdza. The lawyer known for his lawsuits against banks and the conspiracy theories he massively peddles has, together with his wife, open bank deposits from 2022-2024 totalling around €650,000.
Piperea and his wife also have seven plots of land in Giurgiu, Curtea de Argeș and Bucharest, an apartment and four houses and jewellery worth €5,000.
Piperea has a watch worth €7,500, his wife one worth €11,000 and together they have paintings by Romanian artists worth €10,000.
Piperea has loaned the companies where his wife or he and his wife are partners (SC Real Estate and Turn Around Management SRL, SC Agricooltural Singureni SRL) and her parents more than €1 million in total.
In 2023, Piperea and his wife borrowed 100,000 lei each, she from Mircea Deaconu, he from Ciprian Glodeanu. Both loans must be repaid in 2024.
Piperea’s wife also took out three loans from banks in 2023, totalling around €172,000, while the AUR candidate took out two loans in 2022 for just over €143,000.
Piperea is a partner in Agricooltural Singureni and his wife owns half of the shares in Real Estate and Turn-Around Management. In these two companies, the Piperes own shares worth more than €400,000.
Piperea was also a partner or associate and administrator in six other companies that went into insolvency.
In 2023 Piperea had income of 138,000 lei from the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest, where he is a professor, the Arbitration Court of the ICC Bucharest and as an author at CH Beck Publishing House. His wife earned 175,000 lei as director of the legal department of Unicredit Leasing.
From his work as coordinating partner at the law firm he founded, Piperea also earned RON 2.25 million and RON 874,000 as coordinating partner at the insolvency firm RomInsolv SPRL. He also earned RON 31,000 from renting an apartment to an individual.
Piperea is an associate and president of the Parakletos Association, founded to “defend the rights of bank clients”, and of the Alliance for Civic Action and Participatory Democracy.
Diana Șoșoaca and Luis Lazarus are the best known S.O.S Romania candidates in the European Parliamentary elections and almost always campaigning together on the ground. The two are propagators of conspiracies or fake news on social media, have a strong anti-Western discourse and often resort to the Kremlin narrative.
Șoșoacă owns three plots of land (in Căciulata, Vulcana de Sus) and one plot of land in Balotești, two apartments in Bucharest and a holiday home in Dâmbovița.
The senator also has two cars (Opel Corsa and Skoda Octavia), as well as art objects worth €5,000.
In 2021 and 2023 she borrowed 43,500 euros from two individuals, which she has to pay back in 2024 and 2030.
Diana Șoșoacă received a child allowance and an MP’s allowance of 130,000 lei. Diana Șoșoacă also listed in her assets declaration an income of 23,000 lei received by her husband, Silvestru Șoșoacă, who is registered as a “secretary” at the senator’s law firm.
Luis Lazarus has earned advertising money from Facebook and YouTube, totaling over 62,000 euros, and has cryptocurrency investments on Binance.com and Crypto.com of over $30,000.
The former journalist has jewellery worth €9,000, watches worth €11,000, art and cult objects worth €6,000 and sold land worth €35,000 in 2023.
Lazarus also has two deposits in euros (2021, 2022) of about 44,000 euros in total.
The two did not answer ISE questions on the criteria for determining potentially eligible candidates for the European Parliament elections, how much their wealth mattered, and how the party’s anti-globalist and anti-corporate discourse squares with the income of some of the candidates, which in some cases comes from “globalists” themselves.
To be continued.
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