IMPARȚIALITATE·INTEGRITATE·EFICIENȚĂ
September, 14th, 2015
No. 1464/VIII/3
Press Release
The prosecutors within the National Anticorruption Directorate – the Territorial Service Timișoara ordered the start of the criminal investigation against the following defendants:
CIUHANDU GHEORGHE-CORIOLAN, acting as the Mayor of Timișoara Municipality at the time the acts was committed,
COJOCARI IOAN, secretary of Timișoara Local Council,
DUMITRU DELIA-ILEANA, legal councilor,
Charged for the offence of abuse of office, if the public official received an undue benefit for himself or other.
The pretrial detention ordinance drawn up by the prosecutors indicated that there data and indicia leading to the reasonable suspicion describing the following state of facts.
During 2008, the suspect Ciuhandu Gheorghe, acting as the Mayor of Timișoara Municipality and the suspect Cojocari Ioan, secretary of the Local Council Timișoara, by using the prerogative of their positions, broke the legal provisions in force regulating the possibility of awarding amounts of money from the budget of the Local Council Timișoara in the account of S.C. POLITEHNICA TIMIȘOARA S.A. (formerly S.C. FOTBAL CLUB TIMIȘOARA S.A., formerly S.C. POLITEHNICA 1921 ȘTIINȚA TIMIȘOARA & INVEST S.A.), and later signed together with the suspect Dumitru Delia-Ileana, legal councilor and with other people within Timișoara City Hall, the document called „Association Contract”. Based on this, the amount of 9,000,000 lei per year was allocated yearly, for a period of 3 years, „for supporting the Politehnica Știința Timișoara football team”.
According to the sponsorship’s law, the awarding of an amount of money to a legal entity with a private objective with a productive purpose that aims to generate a profit cannot be performed as a sponsorship.
In order to make the intention of awarding amounts of money to the football team Politehnica 1921 Știința Timișoara look legal, the Law of Physical education and sports no 69/2000 was illegally enforced, in order to hide the fact that, by awarding a grant to the same sport club, the law was broken.
Among 2008-2011, the amount of 27,100,000 Lei from the local budget of Timișoara municipality was awarded abusively and illegally to S.C. POLITEHNICA TIMIȘOARA S.A. (formerly S.C. FOTBAL CLUB TIMIȘOARA S.A., formerly S.C. POLITEHNICA 1921 ȘTIINȚA TIMIȘOARA & INVEST S.A.). These amounts were awarded by violating the principle of opportunity that is governing the carrying out and the functioning of the activities subject to norms of administrative law, did not serve the interests of the community but the interests of a private group of interests organized around S.C. POLITEHNICA 1921 ȘTIINȚA TIMIȘOARA & INVEST S.A.
The illegal details were also observed by the Court of Auditors of Timiș County, while carrying out their financial audit mission. As a matter of consequence, the people in charge were charged with the amount of 27,100,000 Lei.
The City Hall of Timișoara municipality filled an appeal against the report of the Romanian Court of Auditors, but it was denied and the decision of the Appeal Court Timișoara remained final.
In order to recover the damage, the seizing of a building belonging to the suspect CIUHANDU GHEORGHE-CORIOLAN and of the bank accounts belonging to the suspect COJOCARI IOAN, up to the amount of 27,100,000 Lei was ordered, representing the value of the damage.
The suspects Ciuhandu Gheorghe-Coriolan and Cojocari Ioan were informed about their legal status and charges, according to the provisions of article 307 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Criminal investigation acts are carried out against other people in the same file.
It should be mentioned that the start of the criminal action represents a stage of a criminal trial regulated by the Criminal Procedure Code, a situation which cannot, under any circumstances, infringe the principle of presumption of innocence.
THE INFORMATION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE