Gheorghescu arrested for fraud exceeding €1.1 million in Romania
Far-right former presidential candidate Călin Gheorghescu was arrested in Romania on charges of fraud and forming a criminal organisation.
Gheorghescu in handcuffs: fresh charges over multi-million euro fraud
The 64-year-old far-right politician Călin Gheorghescu was arrested in Romania on charges of fraud and forming a criminal organisation, according to naftemporiki.gr. Photographs circulated by local media show him in handcuffs being taken to the Organised Crime Fighting Service (DIICOT) for questioning.
DIICOT announced that it had ordered "the detention of two suspects, Romanian citizens aged 64 and 47", both facing charges of forming a criminal organisation and serious ongoing fraud. Prosecutors conducted searches in numerous buildings in Bucharest and its surroundings.
According to the charges, the two defendants approached businesspeople seeking financing, promising to facilitate loans from foreign financial institutions. The condition was that the prospective borrowers themselves pay cash guarantees. In one case alone, more than €1.1 million was extracted from a victim.
Gheorghescu was already facing prosecution for unconstitutional acts, following the annulment of the 2024 presidential election. He had won the first round of that election, which was subsequently cancelled after allegations of Russian interference.
The leader of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party, George Simion, reacted immediately on Facebook: "Any one of us could be next. Stop the abuses! Romania is a dictatorship!"
The arrest coincides with acute political instability in the country. Last week president Nicolae Dan tasked liberal MEP Siegfried Muresán with a mandate to form a government — a third attempt to exit the political crisis that followed the collapse of the pro-European coalition in May. The far right, which controls roughly one-third of parliamentary seats, is pressing for early elections, a demand that Dan has rejected for now.
Source: Google News GR — Crime (el)