Former Pitesti mayor Tudor Pendiuc was finally sentenced on Friday by the Bucharest Court of Appeal to four years in prison with the death penalty in a case in which he was accused of accepting bribes and abuse of office in connection with the purchase of public transport buses. local. His daughter and other defendants in the case avoided conviction because of acquittals or the statute of limitations.

Tudor Pendiuk was sentenced to eight years in prison at the first instance court in Bucharest, the sentence was halved by the Bucharest Court of Appeal after the magistrates found that the statute of limitations for the crime of bribery had expired and that the penalty for abuse of office was reduced from 6 to 4 years old

The daughter of the former mayor and eight others involved escaped prison terms

In the same case, Emanuela Pendiuk, the daughter of the former mayor, avoided a 5-year sentence received in the court of first instance (acquitted of money laundering and the statute of limitations for complicity in receiving a bribe).

Instead, Gheorghe Vasi and Konstantin Skarlat (representatives of SC Girexim Universal SA and SC CNCD SA) each received four years in prison with execution.

The other defendants in the case – who in the first instance received sentences ranging from 4 to 7 years and 8 months of imprisonment – escaped conviction either because of acquittals or because of the statute of limitations.

We are talking about Valentyn Vishoya (shareholder of CNCD SA, SC Conarg SA, Conarg Real Estate SRL, in fact – 7 years and 8 months in prison), Robert Aurelian Roman (general director of SC Publitrans 2000 SA), Emilian Nechit (executive director of Technical Directorate of Pitesti City Hall and President of the Evaluation Commission), Manuel Vasile Rotaru (General Manager of SC Publitrans 2000 SA), Olena Berinde (Economic Director of SC Publitrans 2000 SA), Lucia Korina Ivan (Publice Services Monitoring Unit) and Dora Alexandra Petria (Judicial Police Officer in DNA).

On the civil side, former mayor Tudor Pendiuk, together with Gheorghe Vasi and Konstantin Skarlat, is obliged to pay SC Publitrans 2000 SA Pitesti the sum of 23,279,706 lei, writes Agerpres.

The charges that DNA brought against Pendiuk in this case

The file concerns a contract for the purchase of some buses by SC Publitrans 2000 SA, which provides local public transport in Pitesti, the sole shareholder of which is Pitesti Local Council. According to DNA, the strategy for the sustainable development of the local public passenger transport service in the Pitesti municipality called for Publitrans to replace the fleet with 80 new buses purchased by the local council through the allocation of funds.

Investigators claim that the former mayor Tudor Pendyuk took measures to ensure that, in violation of the provisions of the law, between Publitrans and the private companies CNCD/Girexim Universal SA, a joint activity agreement was concluded, formalized and extended for the benefit of the latter two. companies.

In the same direction during 2006-2007, Robert Roman also acted as the general director of SC Publitrans 2000 SA, who unrealistically claimed in his address to the Pitesti City Hall that the business plan proposed the purchase of buses and the conclusion of a public-private partnership, which rejected the letter and spirit of the plan discussed by the Board of Directors, as well as the will of Publitrans’ CA.

In addition, during the meeting of the board of directors on February 7, 2007, Robert Roman put forward an association with a private operator as the only way out for the recovery of the company, clarifying that this should be done in accordance with the Commercial Code (in violation of the provisions of the law and the articles of incorporation of the company), which enabled further concluding a partnership agreement. Under the pretext of the lack of state funds necessary for the purchase of 80 buses, Pendyuk determined the conclusion of a contract on a joint venture under the terms of which two private companies undertook to own the buses.

According to DNA, from November 2008 to October 2014, although they were aware that CNCD SA/SC Girexim Universal SA did not own 80 buses, Manuel Rotaru and Elena Berinde, in the improper performance of their duties, approached the City Hall of Pitesti with a request to receive a subsidy and signed 70 documents verification protocols for the subsidy for public transport activities of citizens. By doing so, they allowed Pendiuc, as the principal customer of the loan, to order payments to the aforementioned companies.

In the same context, Lucia Ivan, as the head of the department of monitoring of public services, starting from November 2008 and ending in December 2010, in violation of her official duties, signed 26 documentation verification protocols for the subsidy application. for the public transportation activities of the people, knowing the fact that CNCD/Girexim Universal does not own the 80 buses, a method that allowed defendant Tudor Pendiuk to order payments to these companies.

The purpose of the execution of this fraudulent contract was that, within the framework of the association, the private companies CNCD/Girexim Universal purchased vehicles with the proceeds of the association and made a significant profit, while the public transport company Publitrans 2000 SA found itself in the same situation, practically without vehicles. The prosecutor’s office shows that private companies paid for the buses, which later became their property, from the subsidy received from the Pitesti City Hall.

Also, Tudor Pendyuk is accused of the fact that on February 18, 2008, he received for his daughter Emanuela Pendyuk from Valentin Visha an apartment in Bucharest – residential complex Quadra Place worth 130,900 euros (equivalent to 475,812, 18 lei), in exchange for giving preference of the CNCD/Girexim Universal association in the procedure for concluding a contract for the creation of a joint venture, namely the actual provision, execution and further extension thereof.

In order to conceal the receipt of this apartment, on November 26, 2007, Emanuela Pendiuk signed a preliminary contract, and on February 18, 2008, she signed a sales contract with SC Conarg Real Estate SRL and later accepted the issuance of two receipts. , in the amount of 110,000 lei and 365,112 lei, Conarg Real Estate SRL, without transferring the money to the aforementioned company.

In order to create the impression that the apartment has been paid for and that it is not an unjustified benefit, Valentyn Vishoyu, as a person with the authority to make decisions in SC Conarg Real Estate SRL, agreed to conclude a sales contract. which unrealistically states that a full review has been collected.

As a direct beneficiary of the participation agreement, according to the conditions under which the association was obliged to own the vehicles, Vişoiu guaranteed the financial leasing contracts concluded by a specialized company with SC CNCD SA, enabling the use of the vehicles within the associations.

In this way, Vishoiu supported the criminal activity that led to the illegal collection of the subsidy by the CNCD/Girexim association.

On the evening of November 5, 2014, Doru-Alexandru Petriea, as a judicial police officer at DNA, informed his father, Mihai Petriea, that on November 6, 2014, anti-corruption prosecutors were going to search his house, Tudor Pendiuk. . Mihai Petria, in turn, reported this information to Elena Lis, who passed it on to Tudor Pendyuk.

In June 2019, the former mayor of Pitesti was finally convicted in another case, receiving a two-year suspended sentence.

Tudor Pendiuk was the mayor of Pitesti in 1992-2014.