The case of former prosecutor general Valeriu Balaban was sent to court. This is accused of abuse of power by causing considerable damage to the public interests. The case involves four more functionaries of the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) and two business entities, IPN reports.

In a press release, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office said the functionary initiated procedures to purchase an unfinished building for lodging the subdivisions of the Prosecutor General’s Office, ignoring the recommendations formulated in the appraisals report. Contrary to the conclusions of experts and without holding a public tender contest, he signed the contract for buying the building at a much higher price than the value at which this was assessed.

Later, as the main loan manager at the PGO at that time, he signed a contract with a contractor for reconstructing the bought building, purchasing services and building materials at a higher price than the market one.

Consequently, the PGO spent over 24 million lei on buying and repairing the building in 2006-2009, but the works haven’t been completed yet.

Property evaluated at over 17 million lei owned by the defendants was confiscated and the Ministry of Finance filed a civil lawsuit to the value of over 24 million lei to have the caused damage repaired. The functionaries do not admit their guilt.