A resident doctor from the Institute of Pneumophthisiology “Marius Nasta” was sentenced by the Bucharest court to two years of suspended imprisonment in a case in which he admitted to receiving bribes from patients several times, reports Agerpres.

It is about Ian Palade, a resident doctor in thoracic surgery, who is part of a group of corrupt doctors from the Marius Nast Institute, destroyed by prosecutors in September 2023 and which involved two university professors: Cristian Paleru and Cornel Petraeanu, who died in October 2023 in a road accident.

According to court documents, Ian Palade entered into a plea deal with prosecutors from the Prosecutor’s Office at the Bucharest Court in which he admitted to receiving several sums of money from patients hospitalized at Marius Nasta for surgical procedures.

According to the data from the dossier, before the operation, one of the members of the medical team received a sword in an envelope, after which he distributed money to his colleagues through the Revolut application.

“Talk to me after, never before”

The doctors were detained after investigators installed video recording equipment in their offices.

“On 04/25/2023, the defendant (…) talks with the patient’s daughter (…) about the appointment of an operation for him the next day. During the discussion (…) she asks the doctor when she can talk to him again, and he tells her “later”, drawing her attention to the fact that mobile phones also record when they are turned off and that she should be very careful in this situation, because there is a risk that “we will be searched, imprisoned”, emphasizing at the end of the discussion “you talk to me after, never before”, and in this context he refuses to receive banknotes that (…) he wanted to convey to them. On 04/27/2023, the patient’s daughter returned to the accused’s office and handed him a white envelope with the sum of approximately 700 lei, which the doctor took and put on the agenda, continuing to discuss the operation on 04/26. 2023 was performed for the patient. Later, he is seen putting the envelope in the drawer to the left of the desk. At about 10:29 a.m., the doctor took a white envelope from a desk drawer, opened it and looked inside, then returned it to the same place. At the end of his working hours, he took a white envelope from a drawer, from which he took out a sum of money consisting of several bills, which he turned over to count, and then placed in another envelope in his personal black bag. Along with this amount, he also deposited another amount of money consisting of several notes which he took out of another folded white envelope which was in his black bag. In addition, next to the folded envelope was another bill, which he placed in a white envelope in which he collected all the sums of money. He later called the defendant (…), who he told that both he and the resident doctor (…) sent Revolut “something” about the patient (…), court documents say.

“Who attended pneumonectomy?”

The same “procedure” is followed by the Marius Nasta team of doctors in the case of the operation to which the patient was subjected on May 25, 2023.

“On 05/25/2023 at the end of working hours, around 1:53 p.m., the defendant (…), who was still wearing a special helmet for surgical interventions, pulls out a drawer on the left side of the table from his hand and takes out a white envelope. He opens it and takes out a sum of money, then puts the empty envelope back in the drawer and closes the drawer. Having put an empty envelope in a drawer, the defendant chooses the sum of money from those taken from the envelope under the table and asks the defendant (…), who participated with him “in pneumonectomy.” They decide together that it is best that the chosen amount be divided between all three residents, so the defendant sends him a sum of money consisting of three 200 lei notes, i.e. 600 lei, for him to divide with the other two and for him to put the rest of the notes back in the drawer A few minutes later, at 13:56, the resident doctor (…) enters the office, to whom the defendant (…) gives a 200 lei banknote, which he folds and puts in his side pocket in the upper left part of his blouse. From the statement of the suspect (…) it follows that she gave the defendant (…) the sum of 1,000 lei as a bribe a week after the surgery he performed on her husband,” the case documents state.

“I paid them all”

Also, on May 29, the doctor receives an envelope with 2,000 lei from the patient, after which he sends the money to his colleagues in the medical team also via Revolut.

“On 05/29/2023, around 10:30 a.m., a patient named Karavia (…), a patient of doctor (…), handed him a white envelope with the sum of 2,000 lei on the occasion of post-operative control, before discharge. After discussing her state of health, the doctor asks her who the anesthesiologist was and whether he “disconnected with her”, making a hand gesture of a specific money. She replies that it was the doctor (…) and he did not discuss these matters with her, so the doctor suggests that he solve it “now, if at all”, pointing with his hand to the area on his desk where the envelope lies. Karavia leaves the doctor’s office and soon returns with another white envelope, which he puts on the table, and after making a note on the envelope, he puts it in the drawer to the left of the table. After the patient leaves, the doctor looks into the first white envelope given to her by patient Karavia, which was meant for her, and takes out a sum of money, which she holds open in her hand to count. (…) Later, the defendant (…) asks the defendant (…) who was helping him with the patient Karavia and told him that he was sending them money through the Revolut app, saying: “I’m sending you some money”, ” when they are, we have them.” After the end of working hours, the doctor opens a drawer on the left side of the table and takes out a sum of money, which he puts in his left palm, then also takes out a white envelope, which he puts on top of the sum of money in his left palm, saying “and – I paid everything”, the documents also show.

Read also: Two of the doctors from “Marius Nasta” accused of corruption were given preventive measures / Arrest of doctors for 800,000 euros