Dumitru Dumbravă died at the age of 53. Former SRI general was sent to court in Florian Coldea's file

General Dumitru Dumbravă, former head of the SRI Legal Directorate, died on Friday at SRI Agrippa Ionescu Hospital in Bucharest, announces Digi24 and Antena3.

General Dumitru Dumbravă became known to the public according to his statements according to which the courts constitute “tactical field” for the Romanian Intelligence Service.

During an hearing that took place in November 2017 at the SRI's Parliamentary Committee, the general said, according to Claudiu Manda, the head of this commission, that when he spoke about the tactical field, it was not referred to the influence of justice, but rather that the defendants could influence the act of justice and that “there was an attribution”.

Shortly after this hearing, the Commission decided, with 5 votes “for” and 3 votes “against”, to request the resignation of Dumitru Dumbravă, the Secretary General of the Service, on the grounds that the investigations of the commission cannot be carried out as long as it remains.

After this request for resignation, the SRI asked the members of the company to not involve the service in any political game.

He was passed in reserve since September 1, 2018 through a decree signed by former President Klaus Iohannis.

Sent to court with Florian Coldea

Dumitru Dumbravă and Florian Coldea, former first deputy of the head of the SRI and a lawyer from the Bucharest Bar were sent to court in July 2025 by the prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), in a file of influence, money laundering and the exercise of a profession or activities.

“Between 2018-2020, the three defendants, taking advantage of the relational system and the influence that they would have acquired, as a result of the exercise of the functions before the retirement, respectively the influence of the third defendant, through the profession of lawyer, would have constituted an organized criminal group, profiled by the law, the law, and money laundering. The criminal activities would have been carried out until 2024, according to an criminal scheme that mainly assumed the following:

• The identification of some natural or legal persons who encountered problems in various fields, who were promised to solve, by the influence that the defendants claimed to have in the respective fields or of persons who wanted to ensure the protection of influential persons,
• The establishment by the defendants, former military, of consulting companies, through which, in relation to the notoriety enjoyed by the associates/administrators, on the one hand, to attract possible customers, and, on the other hand, to create an appearance of legality of the activity carried out,
• co -opting of law firm or lawyers who conclude legal assistance contracts with persons interested in buying influence,
• The conclusion of consulting contracts to conceal the undue benefits claimed by the defendants by exercising the influence or by hiding the illegal activity of legal consulting,
• The co-opting of some investigative companies, through which the adverse parts of the disputes in which legal consulting, their close friends, lawyers or even magistrates, are granted, because, based on the collaboration and the unequivocal consensus to join their efforts to be constituted, to undergo a group, by illicit means.“

“During the period 2020-2024, the three defendants would have participated in committing corruption offenses, the exercise without law of some legal consulting activities specific to the activity of lawyer and the money laundering, the activity of the group being punctually supported by the fourth defendant,” the anti-corruption prosecutors say.

According to the prosecutors, between March 2023-April 2024, three of the defendants (the two businessmen and the lawyer within the Bucharest Bar) claimed from a businessman (witness in question) the sum of 700,000 euros, in exchange for which he would have to believe that he would have influence on some judges from the court, and that he could determine the court, and that criminal in which he was tried.

After several negotiations, the amount that was claimed by the defendants was reduced to 600,000 euros, says DNA.