Vladimir Ciorba, major shareholder of real estate developer Nordis, and his wife Laura Vicol - former head of the Chamber of Deputies' Law Committee, were brought on Monday by police to the headquarters of the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism to be questioned in the fraud case involving the company. None of the two answered the journalists' questions upon entering the DIICOT seat.
On Monday morning, prosecutors carried out dozens of searches in Romania and Monaco, including at the home of the Ciorba - Vicol couple, as well as at the Nordis offices, in a case of fraud with particularly serious consequences, embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion, with the damage amounting to over EUR 195 million.
The investigation targets 40 individuals and 32 companies structured in a three-tier crime group which conceived and implemented a complex fraud mechanism consisting of promoting and developing real estate projects under the cover of several trading companies, followed by the collection of the buyers' money, embezzlement of company funds, misleading buyers during the execution of pre-contracts and purchase contracts, entry of fictitious operations in the accounting records of the controlled companies in order to evade taxes due to the state budget, and establishing taxes in bad faith (VAT), resulting in ill-gotten amounts as reimbursements, refunds from the state budget or compensations due to the general budget, thus causing damage to trading companies, the buyers and the state budget.
The illicit funds thus obtained were subjected to money laundering.
Investigations revealed that the second echelon of the organized crime group was made of people close to the leaders (relatives or friends), who joined the group and actively supported it through various means, while the top level supported the criminal group on certain components or in certain periods, by preparing the documentation related to real estate sales, apartment building and registration, with legal consultancy (notaries and lawyers), and by collecting embezzled money under various justifications.
The criminal investigation found that over 2019 - 2024, the leaders of the organized criminal group collected from clients - individuals or legal entities - through 5 trading companies, RON 957,000,000 (over EUR 195 million) in advance payments for bilateral purchase promise contracts, respectively purchase contracts (apartments/parking lots and furniture).
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