Sebastian Ghita’s father-in-law stated to the authorities who searched the former MP who disappeared at the end of the last year, that last time when he saw him was on December 15, 2016, according to the information in the Ploiesti Court of Appeal’s conclusion, which maintained the remand in custody warrant issued on the name of the former parliamentarian by the Prahova Court. The same documents shows that a witness stated to the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) that Ghita would have known also the names of those who denounced him in the fifth corruption case in which he is investigated.
According to the Ploiesti Court of Appeal’s conclusion, who definitively accepted DNA’s proposal to issue a remand in custody warrant in absentia on Sebastian Ghita’s name in the fifth case in which he is investigated for corruption, Ghita’s father-in-law, who was found at his home when authorities searched the former parliamentarian, stated that last time when he saw Ghita was last year, on December 15.
“At the location, defendant’s father-in-law stated that last time when he saw the defendant was on December 15, 2016”.
The same document shows that prosecutors have data according to which Ghita knew since the last year about the case opened this year on his name, the former MP knowing also the names of those who denounced him in this case, according to a witness.
“Related to the fact that the defendant avoided the prosecution, the Prosecution Office claims that he knew about the investigations conducted on him by the DNA prosecutors – Ploiesti Territorial Service, which results from the statement of the threatened witness…, statement in which he mentioned that «in the presence of several trustworthy persons, he said that he was informed that DNA – Ploiesti Territorial Service is working on a case as a result of denunciations made by… and…»”, shows the quoted document.
According to the quoted source, in 2016, DNA started to investigate the offenses committed in the fifth case opened on Ghita’s name and on the name of some close persons to him, given that the deeds, of which some are more than eight years old, are “difficult to be investigated and proved”, and this is not because of the prosecutors’ lack of activity.
“The fact that two of the offenses for which the criminal trial has started against the defendant were committed in 2008 is irrelevant, because other five offenses were committed or ended in 2014, and the prosecution against the deeds committed in 2008 started in 2016 not because of a passivity attributable to the Public Ministry, but because they are offenses difficult to be investigated and proved” shows tha conclusion of the Ploiesti Court of Appeal.
On April 3, Ploiesti Court of Appeal definitively rejected the contestation submitted by Sebastian Ghita’s lawyers against the Prahova Court’s decision to issue a new remand in custody warrant in absentia on the name of the former MP, in the fifth corruption case in which he is prosecuted by the DNA prosecutors. Besides, judges of the Ploiesti Court of Appeal accepted DNA’s contestation and ordered the remand also for the offense of forming an organized criminal organization, given that the first court appreciated that there was not sufficient evidence for this offense, and issued the warrant only for influence peddling and money laundering.
In the fifth case opened by DNA on Sebastian Ghita’s name, prosecutors suspect that the former deputy, who represented S.C. Teamnet International S.R.L. and S.C. Asesoft S.A. until 2012, when he was elected as a parliamentarian, requested and received money from the representatives of the two companies, in order to determine the decision makers from certain public institutions and authorities to assign IT service contracts and /or to facilitate the performance of the contracts in good conditions for the companies whose representatives were previously contacted by Ghita. According DNA, these are software purchase contracts financed by public and EU funds, concluded between 2007 and 2015 by several companies operating in the IT field, and their association with the companies S.C. Teamnet International S.R.L. an S.C. Asesoft International S.A.
Sebastian Ghita was sent to judgment in two criminal cases, namely the one in which former Heads of the Prahova Police and Prosecution Office are also accused, and another one in which he is judged together with the former Ploiesti Mayor, Iulian Badescu.
Sebastian Ghita is also prosecuted in other two corruption cases, namely the one related to the visit made by the former British PM Tony Blair in Romania in 2012, and the one in which former PM Ponta’s brother-in-law, Iulian Hertanu, is accused of fraud with EU funds and other offenses, in this case being also investigated the former Head of the Prahova County Council, Mircea Cosma, as well as his son, Vlad Cosma.
On January 10, a panel of the Supreme Court issued an European remand in custody warrant on Sebastan Ghita’s name, the businessman also being internationally searched through Interpol. Ghita disappeared on December 21, 2016, initially being internationally searched after he breached the terms of the judicial control.
