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DIICOT (Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism) prosecutors - the Iasi Territorial Service and judicial police officers on Monday morning conducted 26 home searches in Bucharest and Iasi as part of an investigation into forgery and fraud offences committed by an organised criminal group, in connection with several irregularities found at the Romanian National Opera in Iasi, judicial sources told AGERPRES.
The searches take place in the context of a prolonged conflict between the employees and the manager of the Romanian National Opera in Iasi, Beatrice Rancea, which led to several criminal complaints having been filed by both parties.
According to judicial sources, since 2014, an organised criminal group led by one person, who worked as a manager of some cultural institutions in Iasi and Bucharest, has been set up to operate alternatively in the municipalities of Iasi and Bucharest.
The members of the group obtained large amounts of money in subsidies and allocations from the state budget, in this case from the budget of the Ministry of Culture.
However, they tried to embezzle, in various ways, the subsidies granted by the Ministry of Culture for the promotion of the cultural system through the Bucharest National Opera and the Romanian National Opera Iasi.
The prosecutors' investigation highlighted the fact that the criminal activity of the group covered, on the one hand, the entire range of acquisitions, and on the other hand, it also targeted the expenses with the collaborators and the rents. The group operated, in different periods, both in the municipality of Iasi and in Bucharest, the criminal activity of the last period being carried out in Iasi.
