USR paid political consultancy from public funds to companies owned by its own members
Financial data from USR shows payments of hundreds of thousands of lei to companies controlled by state secretaries, local councillors and party members. Jurnalul.ro has revealed a scheme of contracts financed from state subsidies.
Political consultancy contracts, financed from state subsidies, to companies of USR's own members
Financial data published by the USR General Secretariat reveals a systematic pattern of political consultancy contracts concluded with companies owned by party members, financed from the subsidy received from the state under Law no. 334/2006 on the financing of political parties. The period covered extends from January 2025 to the end of July 2026, according to information published by Jurnalul.ro.
Among the beneficiaries of these contracts are a current state secretary, a former interim director of the Romanian Broadcasting Society and a local councillor for the party at the Sector 2 City Hall.
Cristian Seidler: from USR deputy to consultancy firm paid by USR
SC Proactiv Pol SRL, a company whose sole partner is Cristian Gabriel Seidler, received two payments from USR — one on 24 April 2025, another on 3 July 2025 — totalling 89,926.89 lei, according to the party's transparency portal.
Seidler held the position of deputy in the Romanian Parliament in the 2020–2024 legislature, a mandate that ended with the parliamentary elections on 1 December 2024. The company SC Proactiv Pol SRL was registered at the National Register of Commerce Office (ONRC) after his parliamentary mandate expired.
On 3 July 2025 — the same date as the second payment received by his company — Seidler was appointed state secretary in the Personal Office of Vice Prime Minister Ionuț Moșteanu. Subsequently, he was taken on in the same role by Vice Prime Minister Radu Miruță, following Moșteanu's resignation.
Liviu Cătălin Popescu and SC Dialectiq Asimetriq SRL: 130,800 lei in eight tranches
A second company identified by Jurnalul.ro in USR's financial data is SC Dialectiq Asimetriq SRL, with its office in Ilfov County. The party made eight payments to this company between 8 January 2025 and 19 November 2025, for political consultancy services, totalling 130,800 lei.
According to data from the Commercial Register, the sole partner of SC Dialectiq Asimetriq SRL is Liviu Cătălin Popescu, and the administrator is Amalia Simona Fodor. Popescu was appointed interim general director of the Romanian Broadcasting Society in 2021, by a Parliamentary decision, on the proposal of USR, during the Cîțu government. Until mid-2024, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Broadcasting Society.
In the asset and interest declarations filed during that period, Popescu mentioned, in the income section, the status of an employee with an individual employment contract at SC Dialectiq Asimetriq SRL, as well as membership in the Supervisory Board of MOL Petroleum Services. His wife, Amalia Fodor — the company's administrator — appears in the same documents as an employee of the OMV Petrom Foundation.
In autumn 2024, influencer Vlad Merconi claimed, in a clip distributed on social media, that two USR members had convinced presidential candidate Elena Lasconi to publish on Facebook photographs of a supposed meeting between Nicușor Dan, Victor Ponta and Florian Coldea. One of the persons indicated by Merconi was Liviu Cătălin Popescu himself, described as close to former minister Cristian Ghinea. Popescu also appears as USR's proposal for the position of general director of the Romanian Broadcasting Society.
SC Tgey - Consulting SRL: 187,700 lei in ten payments
A third company identified in Jurnalul.ro's investigation is SC Tgey - Consulting SRL, with its registered office in an apartment in Sector 3 of the Capital, registered at ONRC on 8 August 2022, with business activities in the field of consultancy for business and management.
USR made ten separate payments to this company between 14 October 2025 and 15 July 2026, totalling 187,700.2 lei — equivalent to approximately 47,540 euros — in exchange for political consultancy services.
Advertising paid to a USR local councillor's company
Under the heading "press and propaganda", USR contracted advertising services with a company controlled by Marius Ovidiu Pellegrini, a USR local councillor at the Sector 2 City Hall. His wife also takes part in this company, having previously served as adviser to the former USR mayor of Sector 2, Radu Mihaiu.
Context: the party's former strategist and the financing law
Before the current contracts, USR had used, for several years, funds from the state subsidy to pay for "political consultancy" services from a company belonging to Cristian Ghinea — the former minister of European Funds, known as the "father of the NRRP". According to Jurnalul.ro, the current contracts mark an expansion of this model to other members and associates of the party.
The state subsidy is awarded to political parties under Law no. 334/2006 on the financing of political party activities and electoral campaigns, and expenditures must be published on the transparency portal of the General Secretariat of each party. The data cited in the article comes from this public portal.
USR did not provide, according to the Jurnalul.ro article, an official comment regarding the contracts identified.
Source: Jurnalul.ro