Tineretului Park Scheme: 6.5 million euros paid by Bucharest City Hall for 1.4 million compensation claims
Mariana Manta has received almost 6.5 million euros in late-payment penalties from Bucharest City Hall, despite courts establishing compensation of only 1.4 million euros.
Land in Tineretului Park at centre of controversial compensation case
A plot of nearly 2.5 hectares in Tineretului Park has generated one of the most contested land restitution cases in Bucharest. According to G4Media, Mariana Manta, a purchaser of inheritance rights, has received almost 6.5 million euros from Bucharest City Hall in the form of late-payment penalties — almost five times more than the sum definitively established by courts.
The property in question covers 24,741 square metres and is located on Dâmbului Street 12 (formerly Mărțișor Street 10), at one of the entrances to Tineretului Park. Before nationalisation, the land belonged to Ion Dobre Chiriac and was seized by the communist regime.
How the land ended up in the hands of a rights broker
After 1990, Costel Chiriac, one of the heirs, requested restitution of the property and gradually purchased the inheritance rights of the other co-heirs. For example, on 18 September 2007, a co-heir identified as I.M. sold shares in their inheritance rights to Costel Chiriac for the sum of 5,000 lei.
In 2007, Costel Chiriac sold all inheritance rights to Mariana Manta for 680,000 lei — equivalent to approximately 200,000 euros at the exchange rate at that time.
Bucharest City Hall determined that the land could not be restored in kind, as it formed part of Tineretului Park, and proposed awarding compensation. In 2011, the Bucharest Court certified that restoration in kind was impossible and ordered compensation to be granted. The decision became final through non-appeal and became enforceable.
Legal cap ignored in calculating penalties
In January 2023, the court definitively established that Mariana Manta was entitled to compensation of 1.4 million euros from the National Authority for Property Restitution (ANRP). Both the court and ANRP applied the cap provided for by law for assignees or brokers of inheritance rights: these can receive no more than 15 per cent of the property's value, plus the sum paid for the inheritance rights — in this case, 15 per cent of the land's value plus the 200,000 euros.
Prior to this decision, in 2015, Mariana Manta had appealed to a bailiff and requested late-payment penalties because she had not received the compensation established in 2011. The penalties were calculated, however, at 100 per cent of the property's value, not at the capped value to which the assignee was legally entitled.
Legal experts consulted by G4Media explained that, under the law, only the National Commission for Property Compensation (CNCI) within ANRP has the competence to determine the amount of compensation — not a bailiff or an authorised expert. Therefore, the manner in which the penalties were calculated raises serious questions about the lawfulness of the enforcement proceedings.
Political connections behind the deal
In parallel, Mariana Manta became associated with Constantin Samson, who was mayor at that time in Azuga, to whom she ceded part of the disputed rights. His daughter, Diana Samson, was an employee of Bucharest City Hall and was considered close to former general mayor Sorin Oprescu.
In 2017, Mariana Manta and Dumitru Samson collected from Bucharest City Hall late-payment penalties worth a total of almost 6.5 million euros, in the course of enforcement proceedings.
Constantin Samson denies any connection between the collection of money and the position held by his daughter at city hall. "My daughter had no role in this business whatsoever, not one in a billion, not one in a hundred. She was indeed employed at city hall, she was a secretary there, but she had no role," Samson said to G4Media.
Samson also denies Sorin Oprescu's involvement: "The enforcement took place in 2017 when Firea was in office, Oprescu was no longer there. He had no involvement whatsoever, not one in a billion, I'm telling you. It's true that I was friends with Oprescu, but he had no involvement. Oprescu had no role."
Both Manta and Samson argue that the late-payment penalties paid by city hall and the compensation awarded by ANRP represent distinct legal instruments, and the enforcement proceedings were authorised by the court.
City Hall claims it had no legal recourse
Civil law experts consulted by G4Media believe that Bucharest City Hall erred in the arguments it formulated before the court, did not contest the enforcement proceedings and did not subsequently attempt to recover the difference after the courts definitively established the real value of the compensation.
The Legal Department of Bucharest Municipal City Hall (PMB) contends otherwise: it did not have legal recourse against the order in which the late-payment penalties were established and was not party to the disputes between Mariana Manta and CNCI/ANRP, which would have prevented it from requesting recovery of the sums paid in excess.
The case raises, in the conclusion of G4Media's investigation, questions of lawfulness regarding the manner in which penalties of almost 6.5 million euros were calculated and paid for a compensation right which the courts had definitively set at 1.4 million euros.
Source: G4Media