Călin Georgescu, decision at Bucharest Court of Appeal in 1.1 million euro fraud case
Bucharest Court of Appeal is hearing on Friday prosecutors' appeal against the house arrest decision for Călin Georgescu in the 1.1 million euro fraud case.
Bucharest Court of Appeal decides on Friday the fate of Călin Georgescu's arrest in the fraud case
Bucharest Court of Appeal will hear on Friday, 23 October, prosecutors' appeal against the Bucharest Court's decision to place former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu under house arrest, according to News.ro. If the appeal court upholds the appeal, Georgescu remains in preventive detention; otherwise, the milder measure imposed on 13 October takes effect.
Bucharest Court decided on 13 October to replace preventive detention with house arrest, implementing a milder measure compared to the one applied from 29 September. The judge who handed down this decision is the same magistrate who had initially rejected prosecutors' proposal for preventive detention, placing Georgescu under judicial control — a decision contested at the higher court, which ordered preventive detention for 30 days. Prosecutors also appealed the 13 October decision, so Georgescu remained in Central Prison pending Friday's appeal ruling.
Charges in the case
In the fraud case, Călin Georgescu, Ioan Rusen and an Italian citizen are accused of forming an organised criminal group. According to investigators, starting in September 2021, the three convinced a Romanian businessman that he could obtain financing of 6 million euros through a loan agreement with a banking institution, on condition of depositing a guarantee of over one million euros. Meetings took place in Bucharest, Argeș County and later in the territory of Great Britain.
The victim initially transferred over 1,000,000 euros as a guarantee. Subsequently, under the pretext of increasing the loan to 15,000,000 euros in exchange for an additional guarantee, members of the group compelled him to transfer another 100,000 euros. Total damages exceed 1.1 million euros.
On 7 October, prosecutors from the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) placed a seizure on several bank accounts belonging to Georgescu, after having previously blocked his villa in Mogoșoaia.
Other criminal cases
The fraud case is one of five criminal cases in which Călin Georgescu's name appears. The most recent was opened by the Prosecutor's Office attached to Buftea District Court, after Georgescu allegedly publicly made the legionary salute upon leaving a police station. On Thursday, police officers from Ilfov travelled to Central Prison to question him, but he invoked the right to silence and refused to make statements.
A day earlier, DIICOT prosecutors carried out searches at two addresses in Bucharest in a case involving illegal operations with computing devices and software. In this case, Georgescu allegedly asked a man to scan the villa in Mogoșoaia — targeted by searches on 21 September — with the aim of identifying audio-video technical surveillance means used by investigators, as well as to alter computing data and disrupt technical surveillance systems.
Georgescu has been committed for trial in two older cases. The first, in which he appears alongside former mercenary Horațiu Potra and 20 other defendants, concerns destabilisation of Romania: Georgescu is accused of complicity in attempted actions against constitutional order and communication of false information in continuous form, whilst Potra is answerable for attempted actions against constitutional order, breach of the firearms and ammunition regime and breach of the explosives regime. At the hearing on 28 October, the court adjourned the case to 12 November. The second case in which he was committed for trial concerns legionary propaganda and public promotion of persons guilty of genocide and war crimes.
On 3 April, Bucharest Court had upheld his appeal and lifted judicial control, more than a year after this measure had been imposed in the older cases.
Source: News.ro