How much money must the Romanian state give in compensation to former prime minister Victor Ponta, after he was acquitted in the Turceni-Rovinari case
Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta obtained in court an amount ten times lower than the one originally requested, after he was definitively acquitted in the Turceni-Rovinari Case. The decision is not final and will be analyzed by the Bucharest Court of Appeal next week.
Victor Ponta will be compensated by the Romanian state. PHOTO: Mediafax
Victor Ponta is to be compensated by the state following the final acquittal in the Turceni-Rovinari Case, but not for an abusively instrumented case, but for the excessive duration of the procedure, the Bucharest Court says in the civil ruling.
The court granted the former prime minister 100,000 lei moral damages for exceeding the “reasonable time” of the criminal trial and
24,706.50 lei material damagerepresenting legal expenses, to which are added legal interest calculated from April 2024 until actual payment.
In June 2025, the Bucharest Court partially admitted the civil action, and the case was sent for trial to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, which is to be pronounced on November 18, 2025. The decision will not be final, the last competent court being the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the one that acquitted Ponta in the criminal case.
The amount obtained is, however, ten times lower than that requested by Victor Ponta, who had requested 1.5 million lei in moral and material damages. In his request, the former prime minister claims damage to his reputation, honor and dignity, as well as the violation of his right to a trial within a reasonable time.
We remind you that the investigation in this case lasted almost four years, and Victor Ponta became the first post-December prime minister sent to court during his mandate, in December 2023 he was definitively acquitted in this case.
The Turceni-Rovinari file
The case in which Victor Ponta was tried alongside Dan Șova and several directors of the Turceni and Rovinari energy complexes concerned several legal consultancy contracts concluded illegally during 2007-2008. According to DNA, the “Șova și Asociații” law firm, where Dan Șova was the coordinator and Prime Minister Victor Ponta a collaborator, would have obtained the contracts through direct award, without competition, causing a damage of over one million euros to the energy complexes. The prosecutors then accused Victor Ponta of having received 181,439 lei for activities that would not have been carried out.
The supreme court, however, definitively acquitted the former prime minister in December 2023, citing the lack of evidence and the redefinition of abuse of office by the Constitutional Court, which eliminated the facts that did not involve the violation of a law or ordinance.
Among the reasons for the acquittal were the inconsistencies of the evidence, more precisely the fact that the main activity reports submitted to the file were only copies, unable to be expertized graphologically, and the main prosecution witness changed her statements.
Victor Ponta must, in turn, pay moral damages to Mircea Negulescu
In another civil trial, Victor Ponta was forced, in the first instance, to pay 25,000 lei in moral damages to former prosecutor Mircea Negulescu, after he had publicly accused him, on a television station, of having contributed to the death of his brother-in-law, Iulian Herțanu, who died during the investigation.
The court established that the claims were unfounded, Mircea Negulescu having no powers in that file.
