The president of the Brasov County Council, Aristotel Cancescu, was brought in for questioning by Romanian prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) as he is investigated for acts of corruption.

He was taken to the headquarters of DNA Brasov after several searches that were conducted by prosecutors and local police at his home and at his office at the County Council, according to Mediafax.

He arrived at DNA in a police van. As he entered the prosecutor’s office, he told the media that his investigation is politically driven.

According to judicial sources, the investigation targets the way in which Brasov County Council has assigned contracts financed with public money to several private firms for prices up to ten times higher than their real value. One of these firms is controlled by Ion Dinita, who is deputy in Romania’s Parliament and leader of the Brasov branch of the Conservative Party (PC)

These contracts caused damages of some EUR 10 million to the local authorities, according to Digi 24 news station.

The assigning of these contracts was directly controlled by Aristotel Cancescu, who has been serving as president of the Brasov County Council since 2000 and who is also president of the Brasov branch of the National Liberal Party (PNL).

Aristotel Cancescu had some EUR 4.2 million in bank deposits, according to his latest wealth statement. Last year, his personal revenues were EUR 11,400, according to the same statement.

Cancescu joins an increasing number of county council presidents and large city mayors in Romania who have been investigated in recent years for acts of corruption. Some of them have been arrested and some even got convicted for their actions.

editor@romania-insider.com