NIA required investigation of deputy Cristian Rizea

The National Integrity Agency required the investigation of deputy Cristian Rizea mainly for suspect banking and commercial transactions.

The Agency notified the Court of Appeal of Constanta, the Office for Preventing and Combating Money Laundering and Tax Administration Agency.

The NIA observed,that beside suspicious transactions, the fact that in the case of the PSD deputy there were significant differences between the property and income acquired in

December 2008, since he began being a deputy, by the end of last year.

He was not the only Parliament member under the attention of the Integrity Agency.

The National Integrity Agency evaluations showed that the PSD deputy Cristian Rizea might have earned during his parliamentary public dignity with family a fortune that exceeded his incomes.

According to a release of the NIA, Cristian Rizea could not justify some 300,000 euros of his fortune, money from the difference between the declared revenues and obtained ones.

The NIA inspectors found that the Social Democrat deputy made banking transactions worth 920,000 euros and conducted business with his wife suspicious transactions through intermediaries.

The NIA statement showed that the couple were registered as holders of five bank accounts, two in lei and three in euro .

Through one of the accounts in lei, at its opening date, payments were made by account holders, amounting to over three million lei and nearly two hundred thousand euros, and the amounts were fully extracted the same day by Cristian Rizea.

Irregularities reported by NIA at 20 Parliament members

The NIA evaluations were started last November and the PSD deputy was informed at the start of the evaluation activities.

The PSD deputy told Mediafax that agents acted according to a political order and their purpose was to discredit him both as a person and Parliament member.

Cristian Rizeahighlighted that all the papers were all right, but those of the NIA did not cite him for clarifications.

In addition, deputy Rizea stated that the charge of money laundering and fraudulent real estate transactions refered to the 2007 period when he wasn't a member of the Parliament.

The National Integrity Agency inspectors said that they have lately found irregularities in the case of about 20 senators and deputies from all parliamentary parties.

Among those involved into the conflicts of interest and incompatibility, there were, according to NIA, Parliament members Ecaterina Andronescu, Brandusa Novac, Nicolae Robu, Robert Negoita and Mircea Deaconu.

Also, the attention of the National Integrity Agency was focused on many other senators and deputies.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University