The anticorruption prosecutors held Radu Mazare, the mayor of the Romanian seaside city of Constanta, for 24 hours and asked the court to approve his arrest for 30 days. They charged Mazare with bribery, abuse of office and conflict of interest, after they questioned him for several hours on Monday, March 17.

The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) found that, between 2006 and 2009, Mazare asked and received EUR 2 million from the representatives of two private companies, to approve the development of two shopping centers in Constanta.

Mazare also allegedly received EUR 7 million, for helping a company win an auction for sanitation services organized by the Constanta city hall. The total value of the contract, which had a 25 year period, was EUR 335 million. The prosecutors determined that the contract damaged the local budget by some EUR 26 million.

In both cases, Mazare allegedly received the bribe through fictitious advertising contracts closed by the respective companies with a firm owned by Mazare and another local businessman, Sorin Gabriel Strutinsky. The DNA recently arrested Strutinsky in another case.

The DNA held Radu Mazare before, in April 2014, also on bribery charges. The court then released him, but the prosecutors continued their investigation.

The Constanta Mayor has become famous for his eccentric costumes, and for the carnivals he organizes every summer weekend in the seaside resort of Mamaia, using the Brazilian carnival model.

editor@romania-insider.com