Vaslui County Council President Dumitru Buzatu and his wife were expelled from the PSD party on Saturday after Buzatu was intercepted while receiving a bag containing approximately €250,000 from a businessman on Friday evening.
Emil Savin, a businessman and a former close associate of Buzatu, reported the corrupt activities to prosecutors. The money Buzatu received represented 10% of the value of the invoices settled by CJ Vaslui to his company for road rehabilitation.
Savin revealed that the President of the Vaslui County Council had a history of demanding a minimum of 10% cut from contractors working on road infrastructure projects in Vaslui County.
The Vaslui court ordered Buzatu’s pre-trial detention for 30 days.
Buzatu is one of the most influential PSD local leaders, serving his third term as head of CJ Vaslui. He is one of the so-called “local barons”, rich and powerful politicians ruling impoverished counties for many years.
His ex-wife, Gabriela Crețu, has been a member of the Senate since 2004, and their son was appointed secretary of state last year.
On Saturday, PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu announced the expulsion of Dumitru Buzatu and his ex-wife from the party, while their son Tudor Buzatu resigned from his position as state secretary within the Government’s General Secretariat.
“I did not expect this. Any act of corruption affects the image of any party,” Ciolacu said.
(Cătălina Mihai, Sebastian Rotaru | Euractiv.ro)
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