Romanian prosecutors freeze assets of PSD leader Liviu Dragnea

Romanian Anticorruption prosecutors imposed precautionary measures on movable and immovable property owned by Liviu Dragnea - Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Chairman of the Social-Democratic Party - worth 127.5 million lei ($32,5 million), DNA announced on Tuesday.

This measure was taken in order to recover the damages in the file called “Tel Drum” after the name of the road-building company, where Dragnea – who was President of the Teleorman County Council at the time when illegal facts were discovered - was indicted on November 13 on fraud charges.

Prosecutors suspect Dragnea of forming, in 2001, “an organized criminal group” formed by civil servants and businessmen, who were issuing false documents to illegally obtain money from state projects, some of them funded by the EU. Prosecutors believe this group might still be active.

In the same file, DNA instituted precautionary measures on the assets held by four other suspects in the “Tel Drum” file.

According to DNA, the case was built based on a notification of the European Commission's Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) dated September 30, 2016.

Liviu Dragnea - who is also on trial in a separate case, for abuse of office - denies all accusations against him.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei