Romania Claims Progress in Recovering Corrupt Officials' Assets

Money reclaimed by a specialist agency in Roamnia from convicted officials is already being channelled to government projects related to civic education, crime prevention and victim protection, it has been announced.

The government says it aims to recover over half a billion euros from former officials and businessmen sentenced for graft-related crimes.

The head of National Agency for the Administration of Frozen Assets, ANABI, said the first 4.5 million euros had already reached the ministries of Education, Health, Interior and Justice.

This amount is small compared to the total funds frozen by prosecutors in bank accounts across Romania, worth approximately 156 million euros.

"The money is real, it is money that's been frozen in accounts in banks and financial institutions on Romanian territory," ANABI chief Cornel Calinescu said on Friday.

He also said the agency has counted 2,000 real estate properties frozen by prosecutors that can be sold if the courts decide to recover corruption-related damages.

Calinescu said the agency is also tracing the path of the recovered money to ensure that it is actually used for crime prevention or educational projects, as per the law.

The ANABI, which has 35 employees, was established in June 2016 to channel money recovered from graft investigations to institutions identified as national priorities by parliament.

According to the National Anti-corruption Directorate, DNA, the Romanian court sentences in 204 cases ordered the recovery of almost 227 million euros worth of damages.

However, the authorities have yet to enforce all these decisions and recover all the said assets. DNA chief Laura Codruta Kovesi said at the end of February that recovering financial damages in...