The wife of Romanian Finance Minister Daniel Chitoiu is being investigated in a corruption case which also involves a Romanian bank owner and two managers from the insurance field.

The latter three were recently taken into custody for 24 hours.

Laura Chitoiu, who is a director at the Romanian Authority for Financial Surveillance, along with Marian Mirzac, one of the three people detained, allegedly fixed a job interview and helped Ina-Ana Crudu to become the general manager of Carpatica Asig insurance company.

According to prosecutors, she had done this at Mirzac's request, who was acting on behalf of Carpatica Asig owner Ilie Carabulea. More about the investigation into Carpatica Asig owner's bribery and influence trading case here.

A recorded phone conversation between Laura Chitoiu and Mirzac reportedly shows the two discussing details of the interview. Chitoiu ended up organizing the interview around three weeks before it had been announced, to favor Ina-Ana Crudu.

Chitoiu also changed the members of the interview commission, making sure the new members of the commission would not ask the candidate any inconvenient questions, thus helping her get the green light to become the manager of Carpatica Asig. By law, the ASF has to OK the proposed managers for Romanian insurance companies.

editor@romania-insider.com