A year ago, on his birthday, Victor Ponta launched on September 20, 2014, his candidacy to presidential elections with great luxury on the National Arena, in the presence of 70,000 supporters. This year, the Prime Minister celebrated his 43rd birthday in less luxurious circumstances.
On Monday, his trial on Turceni-Rovinari file is about to start at the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ) after the National Anti-Corruption Directorate prosecutors had sent the cause to court on Thursday.
On Monday, at 12 am, it is the first term established by the preliminary chamber judge in order to verify insurance and preventive measures in this file, that includes four more defendants.
Judge Cristina Rotaru with the High Court of Cassation and Justice, who initially got the case, requested on Thursday to abstain on grounds of incompatibility; the request was approved, the random allocation of the case was resumed, and another judge received the case.
Rotaru is the judge who, in the “Quality Trophy” file, had decided the aquittal of Adrian Nastase, in a different opinion to the other judges.
Ponta is charged of forgery of documents using personal signature (17 offences), complicity to tax evasion through repeated acts and money laundering, committed as a lawyer and legal representative of the private legal practice ‘Ponta Victor-Viorel.’
Other defendants in the case are Senator Dan Sova, coordinating lawyer of the ‘Sova and Associates’ law firm, under court supervision; Laurentiu Ciurel, who was the General Director of the Rovinari Energy Company (CER) when the offences were committed; Dumitru Cristea, who was the General Director of the Turceni Energy Company (TER) when the offences were committed; and Octavian Laurentiu Graure, then Economic Director of TEC.
The prosecutors allege that Ponta received through his law firm 181,000 lei between October 2007 and December 2008 from Sova and Associates, for fictitious collaboration.
The DNA website mentions the following details on this file:
On August 30 2007, the law firms Sova and Associates (represented by Sova) and Ponta Victor-Viorel signed an open-end agreement of collaboration in criminal cases, business criminal law, and other cases when necessary. Under the agreement, Ponta’s legal practice was to receive the fees, and Ponta was to invoice and get 2,000 euros monthly as a lawyer; this amount was later increased in minutes signed on October 29 2007 by 1,000 euros for that month, when Sova and Cristea concluded a legal assistance contract containing a success fee.
On March 27, 2008, the defendants signed an addendum to the agreement increasing the monthly amount for Ponta to 3,000 euros; the month before, REC and TEC had signed other contracts with Sova and Associates, including success fees.
The collaboration agreement was terminated in December 2008, when Ponta became prime minister. By then, he had issued 17 invoices worth 181,439.98 lei for the alleged collaboration; Sova and Associates acknowledged their receipt and made the payment, then entered them into its books. The sums cover expenses that were not based on real operation, as Ponta did not carry out any professional work under the agreement. Sova was the only individual authorized to decide on any actions involving the law firm.
The collaboration agreement was actually meant to reward Ponta for the contracts with REC and TEC obtained by Sova and Associates, as the companies’ management was persuaded that Sova had Ponta’s support.
90 DNA prosecutors support case prosecutor after Ponta’s attack at his expense
On Friday, 90 DNA prosecutors expressed their support to Jean Uncheselu, the prosecutor in Ponta’s case and demanded the Supreme Council of Magistrates to check whether the statements the Prime Minister had made after being officially charged affect the independence of Justice. On its turn, CSM had notified the Legal Inspection. On Thursday, after hearing the decision of DNA to send his file to Court, the Prime Minister had posted on a socializing network that the case prosecutor was “totally unprofessional.”
“The country’s only problem was the obsession of a totally unprofessional prosecutor eager to prove himself in his profession, by making up and imagining untrue facts and circumstances of 10 years ago,” the prime minister wrote on his Facebook account on Thursday.
