The MP of the Party of Action and Solidary Dumitru Alaiba put forward a bill to amend the Penal Code’s provisions on unjust enrichment. He suggests that the text “it was ascertained based on evidence that these could not have been gotten illegally” should be substituted with the text “that this cannot justify reasonably in relation to the legal incomes”.

This way, under the proposed bill, the article “Unjust Enrichment” will say “The holding by a person with a responsible post or a public figure, personally or though the agency of third parties, of property whose value exceeds substantially the gotten gains and that this cannot justify reasonably in relation to the legal incomes”.

Contacted by IPN for a comment, Dumitru Alaiba said that “reasonably in relation to the legal incomes” is when the discrepancy between revenues and costs is large. “In this regard, Article 126, paragraph 1 of the Penal Code explains what “large” means. Specifically,“large is considered the value of goods that were obtained, received, used, kept, sold, the value of damage caused by a person or a group of persons that is higher than the value of 20 forecast monthly average official salaries set by a Government decision that is in force when the deed is committed,” said the MP.

According to him, this way, the legislative proposal will be applied in relation to Article 126, which defines large, considerable or essential damage. “We have had punishment for unjust enrichment for six years already. We are the most corrupt state in Europe, after Ukraine. However, no one has been punished under this article during six years. This initiative is an attempt to advance things,” said Dumitru Alaiba.

He noted that this article is now in legal blockage and is not actually applied. In 2015 - 2019, criminal cases on unjust enrichment were started against 22 persons and three cases were sent to court, but a verdict hasn’t been given in them at least by the ordinary court. This is due to the ambiguous formulations of the Penal Code.

Under the Penal Code, unjust enrichment is punished with a fine of 300,000 to 400,000 lei or three to seven years in in jail, in both of the cases with ban on holding particular posts or performing a particular activity for a period of 10 to 15 years.

The same deed committed by a person holding a public post is punished with a fine of 400,000 to 500,000 lei or seven to 15 years in jail in both of the cases with ban on holding particular posts or performing a particular activity for a period of 10 to 15 years.