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The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) asked the General Prosecutor's Office to notify President Klaus Iohannis for the start of the criminal investigation of the former Minister of Environment, Waters and Forests Costel Alexe - currently president of the Iasi County Council - for bribe-taking and inciting embezzlement.
According to a DNA release, the request of the anti-corruption authority for the start of probing against Costel Alexe is grounded on the existence of a reasonable suspicion that between March and April 2020 he has directly claimed from the manager of a steel plant various metal sheet products in exchange for him accomplishing his duties relating to the free allocation to the respective plant of greenhouse gas emission certificates and monitoring the measures taken by the company to close a non-compliant landfill.
According to the investigators, the respective undue benefits in amount of 22 tons (worth approximately 103,000 lei) were allegedly received on April 23, 2020 and July 7, 2020 at the working point of a company managed by a relative of Alexe.
DNA states that its request to the General Prosecutor's Office is accompanied by the report of the anti-corruption prosecutors and ten volumes with copies of the criminal investigation file.
