The mayor of the town of Otopeni in Ilfov County, Konstantin Silviu Gheorghe, who is under house arrest, was sent to court for abuse of office. Prosecutors accused him of allegedly accepting payment and illegally paying the company nearly 36 million lei to two businessmen for work they did not perform. Silviu Constantin Gheorghe (PNL), one of Romania’s longest-serving mayors, served for 26 years.

Konstantin Silviu Gheorghe was sent to court for abuse of official position with particularly serious consequences in a long form.

On Friday, DNA announced that together with the mayor, Vlada Kostyantyn, who at the time of the act was the executive director of the Otopeni municipality and the person appointed to issue a preventive financial control visa, was also sent to court for abuse of office with particularly serious consequences, in in the form of an extension, Štefan Bohdan Ionel, at the time of the act, the inspector of the investment and public procurement department of the Otopeni city hall, for complicity in the abuse of official position, as well as the site manager and two entrepreneurs, one of whom is in custody, for the abuse of official position, which caused especially severe consequences, in a continuous form.

The charges were brought by the prosecutor’s office

• In the period 2011-2017, in the context of the development of a contract for the design and execution of works for the investment objective “Basic infrastructure in the city of Otopeni” (I phase of works – Ferme neighborhood), concluded between the city of Hall of Otopeni and a commercial company managed by two entrepreneurs , who are being investigated in this case, the city councilor Gheorghe Constantin Silviu and the executive director Vlad Constantin, would have violated their obligations under the basic law and accepted the payment and illegally paid the total amount of 35,916,006 lei, of which:
• 25,421,080 lei, which initially represented unjustified costs for materials that the performer did not actually purchase. Later, in order to at least somehow justify the illegal payments, an act of performance of works would be drawn up (organization of the object, although at that stage such works were not foreseen) with an identical cost, with the help of which only the appearance of compensation was created between the “reverse” cost of the “purchase of materials” , 25,421,080 lei, with a similar cost of some organizational works on the site, which were not actually carried out.
• 10,494,926 lei representing financing costs related to the costs mentioned above.
• In their actions, Gheorghe Constantin Silviu and Vlad Constantin would have used the help of other persons who participated in the case, who either drew up or signed various documents (additional documents, centralization of works, estimates with the status of works) regarding the organization of the construction site, etc.), or various documents (invoices, quotations, etc.) were provided to officials to justify making illegal payments.

Otopeni City Hall said it is a civil party to the criminal process, but has not yet disclosed the amount of the claims.

The case, in which the prosecutors ordered protective measures, was referred to the Bucharest Court for consideration.