Romanian court orders 30-day arrest of former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu in EUR 1.1 mln fraud case

The Bucharest Court of Appeal ordered former Romanian presidential candidate Călin Georgescu and businessman Ionel Rusen into pre-trial detention for 30 days on Tuesday, September 29, Agerpres reported. Both are investigated in the case involving the alleged defrauding of a businessman of EUR 1.1 million.

The court accepted an appeal filed by Romania’s organized crime prosecutors, DIICOT. The ruling is final.

The two judges initially assigned to the case could not agree on the preventive measures, prompting the formation of a tie-breaking panel, according to media reports. A third judge ultimately supported placing both defendants in pre-trial detention.

“Everything around us is God. God is everything. It is existence itself,” Călin Georgescu said as he left the courtroom on Tuesday, as quoted by Agerpres.

Georgescu and Rusen were detained for 24 hours last week on suspicion of forming an organized criminal group and committing continued fraud with particularly serious consequences. A Bucharest Tribunal judge subsequently rejected DIICOT’s request for pre-trial detention and placed them under judicial supervision for 60 days.

However, DIICOT appealed that decision and sought their detention, while the two defendants requested that the judicial-supervision measures be revoked.

The prosecutors allege that members of the group began misleading the victim at meetings in Romania in September 2021 and later continued the operation in the United Kingdom.

The suspects allegedly claimed that they could secure a EUR 6 million bank loan for the victim if a guarantee was deposited. The victim subsequently transferred more than EUR 1 million, prosecutors said.

The group then allegedly promised to increase the loan to EUR 15 million in exchange for an additional guarantee, prompting the victim to transfer another EUR 100,000. DIICOT said the total loss exceeded EUR 1.1 million.

After Georgescu was released under judicial supervision, DIICOT placed a precautionary seizure on his villa in Mogoșoaia