The Maramures police officers who are investigating the case of forgery and illegal obtaining of funds by people who claimed to be hosting Ukrainian refugees discovered, following the raids made on Thursday, that in the applications submitted for statements the suspects included the addresses of some houses under construction, which did not have doors, windows or utilities and where the room space is smaller than declared. Hundreds of thousands of lei in cash were found at the suspects’ homes, the police suspecting that it was money settled for the accommodation and meals of the refugees, reports News.ro.
“Following the 117 searches carried out yesterday, February 9, in the town of Petrova, the policemen of the Maramureş Economic Crime Investigation Service, supported by the policemen involved in the activity, discovered relevant documents that may be related to the case, mobile phones, PC units and USB sticks, which can help prove all criminal activity. (…) At the same time, it was established that some of the locations mentioned in the requests submitted to the territorial administrative unit were unsuitable for accommodation activities, being houses under construction, without doors or windows, without utilities, and the space of the rooms is undersized”, informs, on Friday, Maramureş Police Inspectorate.
According to the cited source, during the searches, 277,170 lei, 18,190 euros, 1,600 USD and 200 pounds sterling were discovered and seized, sums likely to come from the settlement, without right, from the state budget of the expenses for the accommodation and food of the people originating from Ukraine, for the period March-November 2022.
The research continues, to establish all the circumstances in which the acts were committed, to identify all the persons involved in the criminal activity, as well as to identify and make assets unavailable, in order to recover the damage.
On Thursday, police officers from five counties made 117 home searches in a criminal case in which the crimes of illegal acquisition of funds and forgery in documents under private signature are being investigated.
“Those targeted are officials from a territorial administrative unit and 102 people, regarding whom there is a suspicion that they would have obtained, unjustly, approximately 2,657,650 lei, an amount that would have represented the equivalent of food and accommodation expenses for Ukrainian citizens, refugees. At the same time, there is the suspicion that the people would have submitted, at the beginning of January this year, to the territorial administrative unit a large number of settlement requests, as a result of which they would have illegally obtained 9,765,070 lei from the budget of the Budgetary Reserve Fund”, informs, on Thursday , Romanian police.
