Lawyer Adriana Georgescu, caught red-handed while taking a 60,000 Euro bribe, holds positions in the PNL and is close to Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and President Nicușor Dan, according to a false narrative spread by the media that frequently promotes fake news and disinformation related to conspiracy theories and sovereignty.
NEWS: A lawyer member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), who used to participate in the Cotroceni palace parties, together, possibly, with a false Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) general, promised to intervene with the chief prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) and the Bucharest Court, invoking ties with the president and the prime minister, to resolve two criminal cases in exchange for 500,000 Euro, according to Realitatea.net.
Lawyer Adriana Georgescu, head of the Liberal women's group, was reported to DNA prosecutors in September last year by the very person she was asking for money from to resolve the cases, businessman Paul Jean Tucan. The irony of the complaint was that the PNL lawyer sent messages to the businessman even as he was exposing her at the institution's headquarters.
Nicușor Dan's usual dinner invitee and lawyer close to Ilie Bolojan, caught red-handed while taking 60,000 Euro, the first installment of a half-a-million-euro bribe. High-ranking Liberal member Adriana Georgescu promised to use her influence at the top of the government, the SIE, and the DNA.
Tucan claims that they knew each other for about 15 years, as colleagues and members of the Bucharest branch of the PNL party, but had not spoken for several years. Georgescu Adriana allegedly contacted him by phone in the context of the elections, telling him that she could help him resolve the issues he was having with the two criminal cases in which he was under investigation.
NARRATIVES: 1. Lawyer Adriana Georgescu is a high-ranking member of the PNL and holds positions within the party. 2. Georgescu was very close to President Nicușor Dan, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, the head of the DNA, and other people over whom she had influence. 3. Through them or others, she resolved criminal cases in exchange for money.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: First of all, although two days had passed since the incident, no information emerged, either officially or from other sources, about the involvement in the corruption scandal of any of the politicians mentioned by Adriana Georgescu.
Furthermore, the transcripts consulted by Veridica show exactly the opposite, namely that the lawyer and the undercover DNA investigator acknowledge that Ciprian Ciucu, one of the politicians on whose behalf the lawyer was asking for money, did not call the investigator for money, but also that the lawyer failed to "resolve" one of the businessman's cases through the alleged intervention of Nicușor Dan.
MAJAR BOGDAN-CRISTIAN (fictitious name given to the DNA investigator, ed.): What... does CIUCU have to do with it? CIUCU doesn't resolve cases.
GEORGESCU ADRIANA-MIHAELA: Well, he's the mayor of Bucharest, man, if he helps him. JEAN can make him mayor, listen to me! JEAN can make him mayor! We don't have much time left. And talk directly to CIPRIAN. So, talk! So, no middlemen, like with NICUȘOR, because that's where I messed up, thinking that PREDOIU... But no, it had to be direct! I connected directly with CIPRIAN. ...[coughs]... ...[unintelligible]... because he was a friend anyway. ...[coughs]... We've worked together before...
(...)
When asked how Ciprian Ciucu, as mayor of Bucharest, could resolve a criminal case brought by the EPPO, the lawyer does not name any specific person or instrument, but refers to Ciucu as "the second most powerful person in the state." In fact, the second most powerful person in the state is the president of the Senate, while the mayor is the second most voted elected official in Romania, after the president, as Bucharest has a large electorate; however, the fact that the mayor of Bucharest comes to office based on a large number of votes does not in any way increase his powers, authority, or influence in the Romanian state.
Adriana Georgescu was just a simple member of the PNL and did not hold any positions in the party, as a reported by PNL District 1 itself:
"Ms. Adriana Georgescu is not an advisor to the PNL District 1, she is not the leader of the PNL District 1 Women's Organization, she does not hold any leadership or representative position within the PNL District 1 branch. The mentioning of such positions in articles appearing in the press is erroneous and does not reflect the objective reality," the Liberal organization said after news of the offence came out.
Other Liberal leaders denied what the lawyer had said about them in the transcripts and stated that they didn’t even know her.
Attorney Georgescu's statements in the transcripts, typical of swindlers or people who fabricate stories
Regarding the favorable "resolution" of criminal cases, Adriana Georgescu shows in the transcripts that she does not even know the courts or prosecutors' offices that are working on the cases indicated by the undercover investigator, but promises that she can resolve them.
When asked how, Georgescu only says that she "has connections," "has Nicușor behind her," "can talk to Ilie," but does not indicate how they would intervene and does not mention any names of prosecutors or judges except for the head of the DNA, Marius Voineag.
Lawyers consulted by Veridica explained that, based on the transcripts that have been made public so far, the very accusation of influence peddling, under which the lawyer was remanded in custody , is questionable given that the lawyer does not specifically indicate the person who was supposed to settle the cases.
Influence peddling is defined by the criminal code as "demanding, receiving, or accepting the promise of benefits (money, goods) to influence a public official to perform, not perform, or expedite an official act," and the act is considered to have been committed at the moment of demanding or accepting the promise, regardless of whether the influence was exercised or not, or whether the money was received.
In other words, what appears in the DNA transcripts published by the media on January 29-30 are mere promises made by a person who wants to give the impression of being an all-powerful woman with influence and access to the country's leadership, the heads of law enforcement agencies, and with the power to influence the secret services, from which she allegedly receives regular information and to which she has access at any time, to anything.
On the other hand, the lawyer also says in the transcripts that she is "Ludovic Orban's ex-girlfriend" or that Ciprian Ciucu "has been in love with her for 10 years." Orban has vehemently denied any involvement in the corruption scandal, and Ciucu has not made any public statement on the matter to date.
Current political issues: Bolojan government’s reforms and appointments in the judiciary and intelligence services
CONTEXT: Lawyer Adriana Georgescu was caught red-handed receiving a bribe of 60,000 Euro out of a total of 500,000 Euro. She was arrested for influence peddling along with a man who claimed to be a SIE general. Georgescu had promised a businessman that she would intervene to resolve some cases in which he was indicted, but also to help him with the Minister of Transport, so that several contracts that the businessman was carrying out in the Constanța port area could be finalized.
The context in which the corruption scandal is associated with Ilie Bolojan's wing of the PNL and with president Nicușor Dan is one in which the party is facing tensions between the pro-PSD / anti-USR camp and the camp that supports the prime minister and his reforms.
The PSD (Social Democratic Party) has launched repeated and continuous attacks against Bolojan in recent weeks, and on Thursday, the PSD and AUR councilors in Bucharest rejected Ciprian Ciucu's projects (associated with and supported by Bolojan) at his first meeting as mayor of the capital.
On the other hand, President Nicușor Dan is soon to appoint the heads of the major prosecutor's offices, DNA, DIICOT, and the General Prosecutor's Office. The president has stated on several occasions that he is very interested in having his own appointment to the DNA, that he is interested in the fight against corruption in Romania, which he has reintroduced into the national security strategy, but that he is dissatisfied with the current head of the DNA and the institution's activity, which no longer pursues large-scale corruption.
In this context, "sovereignist" websites, pro-PSD and anti-USR / Bolojan wing of the PNL, have already called the corruption scandal the "big hit" of the current DNA chief, who thus emerges as the ”big winner” , and if President Nicușor Dan does not appoint him for a second term, then Marius Voineag. ” would go down in history” as the one who ”was dismissed for aiming too high”.
Adriana Georgescu has been photographed with influential people in Romania, including President Nicușor Dan and Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.
GRAIN OF TRUTH AND OFFICIAL REACTIONS: The spread of information about the lawyer's "closeness" to Nicușor Dan, Ilie Bolojan, and other influential people was amplified by the fact that, on her Facebook page, Adriana Georgescu posted a multitude of photos with former or current PNL leaders, from various events or meetings, or from campaigns, and she also has a photo with Nicușor Dan at the December 1 reception at the Cotroceni Palace, where the president actually invited hundreds of people with whom he took photos.
However, it is unclear how the lawyer's name was included on the guest list for the reception at Cotroceni Palace.
Regarding her alleged association with Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, the latter stated through the government spokesperson that he does not know Adriana Georgescu and that he "often" takes photos at public events "with people who ask him to do so [...] which in no way implies a direct relationship or a personal relationship with those people."
