BREAKING Cristian Popescu Piedone, accused of conflict of interest for YEARS because he allegedly appointed his son-in-law as a member of the Commission for the sale of commercial premises / He had announced that he wanted to run for Bucharest City Hall

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The mayor of Sector 5 in Bucharest, Cristian Popescu Piedone, was found to have an administrative conflict of interest by the National Integrity Agency (ANI) because he allegedly appointed his son-in-law as a member of the Commission for the sale of commercial premises. Piedone is the executive president of PUSL, the party founded by Dan Voiculescu, and announced his intention to run for the Capital City Hall at the weekend.

• UPDATE: Piedone rejected the accusations in a press release and accused ANI of not communicating the data from the report: “I have not yet been notified of any report of the Integrity Agency, although both I personally and my lawyers, innumerable times I did all the due diligence in order to have a correct and transparent communication with the institution’s representatives, but the case inspectors were, in turn, refractory with regard to guaranteeing my right to be informed and to take cognizance in a fair way of the procedures to which I am subject”. See the full press release of Cristian Popescu Piedone at the end of the article

On Wednesday morning, an hour before the announcement of the Integrity Agency, Gabriela Firea had announced that the PSD Bucharest organization voted unanimously to support Piedone as a candidate for a new mandate at the Sector 5 City Hall.

“In the exercise of the mayor’s duties, he issued and signed the order appointing his son-in-law (according to the first degree) as a member of the Commission for the sale of commercial premises or services that fall under Law no. 550/2002, as a result of which he obtained a material benefit (revenue collected in 2021 and 2022) in the total amount of 109,520 RON”, according to ANI.

“Thus, the assessed person violated the provisions of art. 70 and 71 of Law no. 161/2003, combined with the provisions of art. 5, lit. f) and art. 228, para. 1, lit. a) from GEO no. 57/2019”, the National Integrity Agency also states.

ANI specifies that the mayor of sector 5 was informed about “the initiation of the evaluation procedure, the elements identified, as well as the rights he benefits from – to be assisted or represented by a lawyer and to present data or information he deems necessary, personally or by submitting a written point of view”, but also that Piedone did not submit a point of view to the evaluation file, in exercising the right to defence.

The full press release of Cristian Popescu Piedone

It is unprocedural, and dare I say illegal, to learn about the existence of ANI’s conclusions from the press before I have been notified of the integrity institution’s final report.
I specify, in this sense, the fact that I have not yet been notified of any report by the Integrity Agency, although both I personally and my lawyers, on countless occasions, have done all the due diligence in order to have a fair and transparent communication with the representatives the institution, but the case inspectors were, in turn, recalcitrant regarding the guarantee of my right to be informed and to be properly aware of the procedures to which I am subject.
I was informed about the existence of the evaluation activity only in the last moments of the procedure, my right to defense being flagrantly restricted!
My lawyers submitted numerous requests in order to guarantee an effective right of defense, requests to which the integrity inspectors did not comply, even in violation of the legal provisions, so they showed bad faith.
In the same vein, my lawyers identified flagrant violations of the legal norms that govern the evaluation activity during the course of this procedure, aspects that I will develop in the subsequent procedures, respectively after the report of the integrity institution will be officially communicated to me .
I can state that it is extremely suspicious that ANI is making press releases in such a manner, without me having been officially notified of the report, and this is happening less than 48 hours after I received my announced his candidacy for the position of General Mayor of the Capital.
I have been through a battle with the system before and I am not afraid of such attempts at discouragement, I trust in God and my family, as before, and the trust that people have invested in me and continue to do give me courage to fight on.
I will come back with additional details, after the moment when the ANI report will be legally communicated to me as well.

Context

In June 2023, Piedone was released from prison and resumed his position as mayor after the High Court of Cassation and Justice admitted his cassation appeal in the Collective case. Cristian Popescu Piedone was acquitted because the facts are not provided by the criminal law.

The Bucharest Court of Appeal had sentenced Cristian Popescu Piedone in May 2022 for the crime of abuse of office to four years in prison with execution in the Collective file. G4Media wrote since the day of the sentencing, in May 2022, that it was a wrong decision of the court, taken under public pressure.

He was in prison for a year.