The former head of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), retired general Florian Coldea, the former head of the legal department of the SRI, general Dumitru Dumbravă, and the lawyer Doru Trăilă were placed under judicial control, after being questioned by DNA prosecutors for 15 hours. The investigators set a bail of 500,000 lei. Florian Coldea is being investigated in a case of influence peddling and money laundering, according to judicial sources.
Florian Coldea, former first deputy director of the SRI, was placed under judicial control on bail by the prosecutors of the National Anticorruption Directorate. The prosecutors set a bail of 500,000 lei. Coldea left the DNA headquarters on Friday after more than 15 hours of hearings, refusing to make statements to journalists. Former SRI general Dumitru Dumbravă and lawyer Doru Trăilă were also placed under judicial control. In the case of Dumitru Dumbravă, the prosecutors set the same bail of 500,000 lei.
The businessman Cătălin Hideg, the one who denounced the former SRI generals Florian Coldea and Dumitru Dumbravă to the DNA, said on Thursday, in an intervention on Antena 3, that they had asked him, through the lawyer Doru Trăilă, the sum of 600,000 euros to help him obtain a suspended sentence, in a case in which he has a first-instance conviction of 4 years in prison for fraud with European funds.
“I had a meeting with Mr. Dumbravă, who recommended Mr. Trăilă as my future lawyer. I went to his office, to the law office, where they initially told me that they wanted 700,000 euros plus VAT. Later, I told him that it was a very large amount, that I had never seen such fees in Romania. He told me that this is how he received orders from the gentlemen generals, that this is the amount I have to pay if they want to take me as a client. I told him that it is a lot and I offer the sum of 500,000 euros. He said: “Okay, I can’t decide, I have to talk to the general gentlemen and in a few days I’ll tell you what the decision was.” Later, I presented myself again at Mr. Trăilă’s office and he told me that the only option he accepts is 600,000 euros including VAT, otherwise we cannot conclude this legal assistance contract. And I signed the contract”, said Cătălin Hideg, on Antena 3.
In exchange for this money, he would have been promised “optimization of his problems in justice”, that is, to receive a suspended sentence. “When I concluded the contract, they told me that if things go well at the trial court and the judge, who was Mr. Trăilă’s student, gives a positive resolution, it will be simpler at the Court of Appeal and that we will reduce these years ”, Hideg said.
He added that he met Florian Coldea in the summer of 2023 at a terrace, where there was also a friend of his who had come from the United Arab Emirates, and the former general would have told him that he knew about his problem. Cătălin Hideg also claimed that he paid a first installment of 100,000 euros, but he had no more money, after which he would have been threatened to pay the rest of the amount.
He admitted that he filed a complaint with the DNA and over 20 records with “clear evidence” against those who threatened him. On the other hand, Hideg testified that he has no evidence that the money he gave to the lawyer Trăilă would have reached the former SRI generals.
Cătălin Hideg and his company, Sanimed Internaţional, were sent to court by the European Prosecutor’s Office, in October 2022, in a case of fraud with European funds, the damage being estimated at 3 million euros.
“In order to win a tender for RECUMED, a project financed by the European Union for the creation of a research and development center in the field of medical recovery and biological reconstruction, the businessman presented several false and inaccurate statements and documents. These referred to the procedure for awarding the contract for the supply of medical equipment and to the construction works necessary for the realization of the project. Later, he managed to receive, between 2018 and 2020, non-refundable subsidies worth more than 3 million euros”, EPPO announced at the time. In this case, Hideg was sentenced to 4 years in prison with execution, in February this year.
The post Ex-intelligence chiefs Coldea, Dumbravă under judicial control following 15hrs hearings, bail set at 500,000 lei appeared first on The Romania Journal.
