The President of the County Council Vaslui Dumitru Buzatu was detained for 24 hours, after he was caught red-handed with a bribe of over one million lei.
Dumitru BuzatuPhoto: Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
The decision was taken on Saturday morning, after Buzatu was interrogated for several hours, overnight, at DNA Iasi. Buzatu was taken to the Iasi DNA for questioning on Saturday evening, after his house was searched.
Flagrant with a bribe of 1.25 million lei
He was detained for 24 hours, and on Saturday he will be presented to the Vaslui Court with a proposal for preventive arrest for 30 days.
Buzatu, one of the oldest PSD leaders and the head of the Vaslui County Council, was caught red-handed by the Iasi DNA while receiving a 1.25 million lei bribe.
According to sources cited by Vremea Noua newspaper it would be a bribe given for the continuation of the strategic road Bârlad – Laza – Codăești.
PSD rushes to exclude him from the party
The National Political Bureau of the PSD is meeting online on Saturday for the exclusion of Dumitru Buzatu from the party. The announcement was made by the leader of the formation, Marcel Ciolacu.
“Tomorrow I will urgently convene the National Political Bureau in online format and I will propose to my colleagues the exclusion of Mr. Dumitru Buzatu from the party. I have always said that in my mandate there is ZERO tolerance for acts of corruption! And those who do not understand this have no business in PSD!”, wrote Ciolacu on Facebook.
The spokesperson of the PSD, Lucian Romașcanu, confirmed the information and the convening of the National Political Bureau.
“This fact will not do the party any good, but our attitude towards corruption is important, which is the right one. Marcel Ciolacu has always said that he will not tolerate acts of corruption”, said Romașcanu.
Dumitru Buzatu, a leader from the old guard of the social democrats
Dumitru Buzatu, president of Vaslui CJ, was re-elected in January as the leader of the Vaslui PSD county branch.
He claimed then that the social democrats had no way of “impoverishing” Vaslui, because “the people of Vaslui have always been poor”: “When the people of Vaslui were rich, why did we impoverish them?… Let’s not have any kind of embarrassment because I have done no wrong.”
Buzatu is in his third term at the head of the Vaslui County Council, having a fortune that has raised many question marks regarding legality.
Buzatu is from the old guard of the social democrats. He was elected PDSR deputy in 1992 and had three mandates in the Parliament, until 2004.
The huge fortune of Baron PSD Buzatu
The wealth of the PSD baron Dumitru Buzatu, who in the last three decades has only worked for the state, has grown constantly, year by year, so that the last declaration of wealth, submitted in 2023, as re-elected president of the Vaslui County Council, is a ” interminable of possessions.
Dumitru Buzatu owns or is a co-owner of 10 agricultural, forestry or rural plots and 5 buildings, all built by him.
“Apparently rivals and with different political creeds, the Buzatu and Bichineț families jointly own at least two huge plots of land in Șaru Dornei, Suceava county. A pasture of more than two hectares (21,373 sq m) and a forest of almost three ha (28,500 sq m), both bought during the real estate boom of the late 2000s when land prices, everywhere in Romania, had effectively exploded,” wrote Podul.ro .
Dumitru Buzatu also has a retirement pension of 95,820 lei, but also a special pension from the Romanian Parliament of 73,372 lei.
