INVESTIGATION. Ior cemetery. How 12 hectares came from IOR Park in the hands of a family with political connections and hiding the acts of retrocession

Over 12 hectares of the IOR Park were retrocessed by the Capital City Hall “more than they should”, sources close to the criminal investigation, according to an investigation published by Snoop.ro. Following the decision, a piece of the area was transformed into a devastated field. Behind the retrocession appears the Băjenaru family, with political connections and real estate business. The activists are struggling to regain him in court, while the prosecutors are investigating the retrocession.

• Snoop starts an investigation-serial about a case that affected hundreds of thousands of Romanians: 12 hectares of park completely in the heart of the most populated sector in the country. The reaction did not come from the authorities, but of the citizens: the inhabitants and activists gave the alarm signal while the state institutions were silent or struck.
• We have documented, for several months, who are the owners, the history of the case, the official investigations, the mistakes made by the authorities and what will happen next with the retrocession area.
• All the tracks lead to the Băjenaru family, hidden behind Maria Cocoru, a deceased nonagenar, owner of the land. With real estate business, the family took over companies from the millionaire Dragoș Dobrescu and rent the state spaces.
• Although discreet, the “heirs” have properties, expensive cars and connections with figures from the former PDL, from the period when the Democrat-Liberal Mayor Videanu returned the piece of the park.

For now, it is not known who are the heirs of Maria Cocoru, formerly Băjenaru, who is the owner of the 12.2 hectares of the IOR Park. The woman died last year, at 90, and the land in IOR remained in the administration of people with business in real estate and playgrounds in other sectors of the capital.

False signatures and wrong laws. Prosecutors are investigating

The DNA is researching the retrocession of the 12.2 hectares of the IOR Park, after several complaints filed by the citizens.

In March 2024, after the historic fine of 35 million euros, the prosecutors raised documents from the Capital City Hall. The sanction was applied because the owners cleared the plant layer on an area of ​​9,000 square meters.

Contacted by Snoop, DNA prosecutors refused to provide information on the investigation stage or the offenses concerned, or the nature of the complaints received.

Earlier this year, the mayor of the capital Nicușor Dan announced that he is thinking of entering the credit table, in an attempt to determine who the heirs are and to recover the fine of 35 million euros.

The prosecutors also received a report of the National Authority for the Restitution of Property (ANRP), which checked documents from several institutions regarding the history of the owners and how the land returns in the 2000s, at the notification of the former prefect of Bucharest, Rareș Hopincă. He also challenged in court the decision of retrocession. For the time being, the process started by the Prefecture is suspended, until the DNA file is resolved.

One of the irregularities noticed is that the land was relocated on the basis of a wrong law.

In 2005, says the former prefect Hopincă, the land should have been back on the basis the law of the land fundnot of Law 10, which refers to the buildings taken abusively by the communists. This is because IOR is part of the former Dudești-Cioplea estate, arable land, expropriated in the past through agrarian reforms.

ANRP refused to provide data from his report, but sources close to the investigation told SNOOOP that inspectors have found suspicions. Specifically, the signatures submitted by the landlord's heir, Eduard Ioan Dan Romalo, at the Capital City Hall, on the requests for retrocession for the lands in the former Dudești-Ciooplea estate, do not resemble each other.

“This is just one aspect. The background of the problem is another: the right of property,” say sources from the investigation. According to them, The Capital City Hall returned “more than it should” in the IOR Park.

Rareș Hopincă confirms for Snoop that this also read in the ANRP report.

“Romalo came, he put the City Hall on the table and said: this is my land, I want it. And the City Hall said: well, without checking, as it should, if what asked Romalo is correct, in the area that he asks for and in the place,” explains sources.

Băjenaru family companies

A key character in the duties of the land in the IOR Park is Petre Băjenaruthe nephew of Maria Cocoru. Neighbors say he lives in his former apartment and that he “can't talk to him.” The Snoop reporter knocked on the door, but no one answered.

Petre Băjenaru (57 years old) is involved in several real estate businesses, being a shareholder in Basp Property SRL and Basp Ideal SRL, as well as associate in companies owned by his relatives-Vasile, Constantin Daniel and Lucian-Ionuț Băjenaru-such as Grueff Management SRL (the name of the landlord who initially owned Pârceament), BASP COMMERIAL PALACE SRL and BASP INVEST TEAM SRL.

Basp Ideal SRL was founded in 2006 by the businessman Dragoș Dobrescu, a member of what the press called the “Monaco Group”, an informal network of businessmen and politicians connected to public contracts. Later, he sold the company to Petre Băjenaru, also involved in real estate business. Dobrescu was investigated by the DNA in a corruption file regarding the construction of the Drumul Taberei subway.

G4Media wrote in 2018 that the Ministry of European Funds, led by Rovana Plumb, rented the headquarters from the Basp Property SRL and Basp Ideal SRL. Recently, the former PSD minister of European funds, Adrian Căciu, was complained about the big rent paid by the ministry, of 2.4 million euros annually.

In his visits on the back of the IOR, Sorin Tuță, the land administrator on behalf of Cocoru, He drives a car that has the registration number “BSP”, as the car at the wheel of which the journalists in the past surprised Petre Băjenaru, but also as other cars driven by members of the Băjenaru family.

The same car was surprised in 2019 near Brâncuși Park, which also belongs to Maria Cocoru, where two men took down the banner with “Save Brâncuși Park” mounted by activists. It happened during the period when the General Council approved a PUZ that allowed the construction of 10 -storey blocks.

Snoop journalists could not contact Petre Băjenaru, but they called Dan Băjenaru (Petre's nephew).

He denied that he had anything to do with the land in the IOR Park and refused to comment on the relationship between the Băjenaru family and Maria Cocoru.

The young Băjenaru: “The holidays come, people need peace, not cheap shows”

Of the same refusal we hit and when we contacted his summer, Alexandru and Mihăiță Băjenaru, who live in Vidra commune, Ilfov county. Where Maria Cocoru spent the last years of life.

Mihăiță Băjenaru, 32, did not answer when I called the gate, although a silhouette appeared on the arches. In the yard he has two cars, both with the “BSP” termination at the registration number, as well as the cars of his family companies. In the images on social networks, Băjenaru is also displayed with a third BMW.

Instead, the young man answered the phone.

“I have nothing to do with these retrocessions. Maybe you were wrong,” he initially said.

Was away to give any explanation related to his aunt:

“It does not have this importance: who is Maria Cocoru, first of all. Second, the holidays come and everyone needs peace, not these cheap shows, journalism with which you take care. (…) You should deal with something beautiful, not the cheap things, yes?”

Read the continuation of the investigation about the IOR Cemetery on Snoop.ro.