Former District Council President (CJ) Vaslui Dumitru Buzatu remains in pretrial detention in a case in which prosecutors caught him red-handed in September when he accepted a 1.25 million lei bribe from a Cluj businessman for his company to obtain contract The decision was made on Tuesday by the Vaslui court.

Dumitru BuzatPhoto: Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
  • Buzatu planned to flee the country together with his secretary: “If I succeed, we will go all the way to Ecuador”/ Transcript of DNA

Buzata, who was also the president of the PSD county organization in Vaslui, is accused of bribery after he was caught red-handed by anti-corruption prosecutors when he received 1.25 million lei.

“Retains the preventive measure chosen for the defendant Buzat Dumitra, which is subject to periodic review during the 30-day period provided for in Art. 207 para. 6 of the Criminal Procedure Code,” the Vaslui court ruled, reports Agerpres.

Dumitru Buzatu has been in custody since September 23.

DNA announced on Friday that it had put Dumitra Buzata on trial for bribery and Rada Judele under house arrest, also accused of bribery and influence peddling.

The accusations that DNA brings against Buzat

  • “In 2019, as part of a project financed by European funds, a public procurement contract was concluded between the Vaslui County Council and a commercial company, the purpose of which was to restore and modernize some roads in the Vaslui County.
  • During 2021, when the works were 80% completed, there may have been misunderstandings between the representative of the respective commercial company (the witness in question) and Dumitra Buzata, the president of the Vaslui County Council, regarding the payment of bills (approximately EUR 3,000,000) and implicitly to the amount of the bribe that should have been transferred to the latter.
  • In this context, the Vaslui District Council entered into an agreement with a commercial company (the subject of which is the provision of engineering and technical consultations), which is managed by the expert-respondent, for the technical examination of the completed works.
  • After drawing up an expert report in the periods 27-29.06.2022 and 07.02.2023-26.04.2023, the expert would demand from the entrepreneur the sum of 714,000 lei for formulating conclusions that contradict his own expertise conducted on the basis of the contract concluded with the council Vaslui District, and implicitly “favors” the witness company (in the sense that the invoices for the amount of approximately EUR 3,000,000 due to him as a result of the exact performance of the work according to the specification) were paid in full.
  • In addition, for the alleged amount of money, the expert also promised the businessman that he would intervene in the decision of the Vaslui District Council and force them to pay the invoices issued by the businessman’s company for the work performed.
  • In the above context, the expert received a total of 714,000 lei on 02.03.2023 and 27.04.2023.
  • After the transfer of the amount, the expert would provide the Vaslui County Council with technical documentation on the adaptation of the conclusions of the technical examination for the works carried out by the witness company, which was received and accepted by the decision-making factors within the public institution, including the defendant Buzatu Dumitru.
  • Between 08.05 and 07.09.2023, Dumitru Buzatu, as president of the Vaslui District Council, allegedly indirectly demanded sums of money from the same businessman, amounting to 10% of the value of approximately 3,000,000 euros mentioned above (which represented the value of works performed by the businessman’s company ).
  • On September 22, 2023, Dumitru Buzatu would have received an amount of 1,250,000 lei, during which it was discovered that a blatant

The prosecutor’s office decided to establish precautionary measures against 20 real estate objects (apartments, houses, buildings, land plots) belonging to Buzat, and sent an expert to the court together with him. The money seized from Dmytro Buzata during the searches was also seized.

The case was sent for consideration to the court of Vaslui with a proposal to keep in force the preventive and protective measures prescribed in the case.

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Dumitru Buzatu personally received the money marked with DNA and found in the suitcase. He put the suitcase in the trunk of the institutional car, and two hours later he was caught.

  • “At 17:15 (…) and Buzatu Dumitru got up from the table and went to cars of the brand (…) and the brand (…). Buzatu Dumitru went to the trunk (…) and (…) to the car (…), where he opened the rear left door and took a brown bag from the place provided by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate, which contained the sum of 1,250,000 lei . Buzatu Dumitru opened the trunk (…), (…) approached him, handed him a bag with money, Buzatu Dumitru took it, put it in the trunk, and then closed it,” the DNA documents state.

Chief CJ Vaslui was stopped almost two hours later when he had money in the county council car.

“Later, on September 22, 2023, around 7:12 p.m., a car (…) from n. registration (…) used by the Vaslui County Council was stopped at the exit from the farm (…) and the name BUZATU Dumitru was identified in the car accompanied by a driver employed by the Vaslui County Council. During the search of the car, a brown bag was found in the trunk of the car on the left side, after examination of which it was established that this bag contained an amount of money in lei, which consisted of a banknote with a denomination of 500 lei,” says the protocol with the proposal for preventive detention arrest made by DNA in the case of the president of the Vaslui district council.

Buzatu received 2,500 500 lei banknotes marked by investigators for a daring act. The money received as a bribe was for a contract with European funds.

Prosecutors intercepted the conversation:

  • Dumitru Buzatu: Did you catch something?
  • Witness: We all caught fish!
  • Dumitru Buzatu: Anything else… besides fish?
  • Witness: I didn’t catch anything else! I haven’t fished yet! I didn’t catch anything else!
  • Dumitru Buzatu: Let me come to you there to see!
  • Witness: Come on! Come on!
  • Dumitru Buzatu: Agree there, when I come, fish will be caught like the world! Stop emptying!
  • Witness: I have already agreed, given them everything they need, made a written request, report everything, and that’s it!
  • Dumitru Buzatu: When I come… I come, fish for 5 minutes and leave!
  • Witness: Done! Yes Yes! But how long does it take to tell Emil to bring hot food?
  • Dumitru Buzatu: I will come now! I will come now!
  • Witness: Will you come now?
  • Dumitru Buzatu: I will come now, yes.

At the time, PSD President Marcel Çolaku announced that Buzatu had been expelled from the PSD, and his son Tudor Buzatu had left his position as State Secretary in the General Secretariat of the Government. Dumitra Buzata’s ex-wife, PSD senator Gabriela Kretsa, was also suspended from the party.

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