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Vlad Voiculescu, co-chairman of Save Romania Union - Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity Alliance (USR PLUS) Bucharest, and USR general councilor Ana Ciceala filed, on Thursday, a criminal complaint against Bucharest general mayor, Gabriela Firea, for abuse of office in connection with the giving in payment of the French Village to Costica Constanda.
"We are talking about an abuse of office through the attempt to give in payment of a plot of land that far exceeds the value that should have been redeemed by the mayor's office. We are talking about an abuse of office that Gabriela Firea tried to commit in her last days in office. In five consecutive Council meetings she has tried to have this decision passed. It is an unforgivable thing. (...) The Bucharest City Hall has a debt to Mr. Constanda. The buildings that the City Hall wants to give him in payment have a higher value; they were undervalued precisely to do a service, to give an undeserved advantage to Mr. Constanda, to the detriment of the people of Bucharest," Voiculescu showed in a press statement held in front of the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) headquarters.
In her turn, Ana Ciceala emphasized that the actual payment cannot be made with goods from the Municipality, because they must be put up for auction, according to the Administrative Code.
"This has been a real estate fraud attempted during Gabriela Firea's last days of office. This draft decision has been on the agenda of the General Council no less than five times. We suspected from the beginning that there is something wrong and, fortunately, we managed to stop this illicit gain and take as many steps as possible in order to obtain the documents. The decision, which came five times in the General Council refers to a price of 1,515 euros per square meter. Or, the Constanda family, the creditors of the Municipality of Bucharest, according to the court, had said that they agree to a 4,100-euro price. That is, the damage done to the patrimony and the budget of the Bucharest municipality is major. Potentially, estimated at 39 million euros, if Gabriela Firea had succeeded in conducting this real estate fraud towards the end of her office. She tried, she threatened us in the CGMB meeting. She did not succeed, but in the last meeting she was hanging by a single vote for the project to pass. She did not validate the general counselors in August, precisely to reduce the quorum at the last meeting," said Ciceala.
