Mihai Caragață is a deputy from Ialomița and entered the Parliament in the November 2024 elections, on the SOS Romania lists. HotNews filmed him arriving at Parliament in a Mercedes GLE SUV, which does not appear in the asset declaration.
In the Parliament, the private cars worth tens or over a hundred thousand euros that elected officials drive sometimes do not appear in the wealth declarations. For the Holidays, HotNews filmed and talked to some of the chosen ones.
Mihai Caragață, SOS Romania deputy drives a Mercedes GLE that is not his
“The car is owned by the company, I am the majority shareholder”, claims Mihai Caragață, deputy of SOS Romania, before getting into the Mercedes GLE SUV car, with which he came to the Parliament. In the declaration of wealth that he submitted in June 2025, the chosen one listed only one car: a Dacia 1300, manufactured in 1980.
The company the car is registered to is Auto Gold Bussines, the company deals in the “automotive field”.
What are the rules
The law does not oblige elected officials to pass the cars they drive, if they are registered in the name of the companies in which they are shareholders or associates. Moreover, the Constitutional Court ruled that wealth declarations should not be public, but should be submitted to the National Integrity Agency.
In order to be able to be used by parliamentarians, the law stipulates that the elected official either does not deduct VAT for the car purchased on the company, or has the obligation to have “roadmaps” for the use of the vehicle.
A recent check by ANAF, after a Snoop.ro investigation, confirmed that the chairman of the Defense Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, Mihai Weber, was using a Mercedes GL53 for personal purposes, not in the interest of the company. He returned the car to the leasing company after ANAF inspection.
VIDEO Santa's parking lot. The explanations of a deputy when he was caught in Parliament with a BMW X5 that does not appear in his wealth declaration
Deputy Caragață: “It cost about 123,000 euros”
How does Caragață explain? “I use the car as usual, it's the company car, but I'm the majority shareholder, I deal with the company's shares, it seems normal to me. I own it before entering politics and being a deputy. I made the VAT deduction at the time I purchased it and I was not in politics, I was an administrator. I gave up the position of administrator after I became a deputy,” Caragață told HotNews.ro.
He states that he currently no longer deducts VAT on repairs or insurance, especially since he owns “car services and car washes”.
“It cost about 123,000 euros, I don't remember, I think it's been two and a half years since then. I always drove the car every day, it seems normal to me, the law allows me,” Caragață told HotNews.
How is Auto Gold Bussines from Ialomita doing?
According to the termene.ro website, Florin Caragață is sole partner in the Auto Gold Bussines company, from Ialomița county. Since the end of last year, when he became a deputy, he retired as a shareholder, and his place was taken by his wife.
The commercial company had, in 2024, a turnover of 2.7 million lei and a profit of 202,407 lei. In the declaration of assets, the Caragață deputy stated that he received dividends worth 145,000 lei from the company he owns.
“I sit and wonder after 36 years if the sacrifice of the Romanians in 1989 was worth it. From my point of view it was a coup d'état orchestrated by powers that were supposed to practically dethrone Romania's evolution. We were the only country in the world that paid our debts and this had to be punished… External forces exterminated us, from Europe's granary we became Europe's slaves. Everything was orchestrated to destroy us as a nation,” he said in a few days ago Mihai Caragață, in a post on Facebook.
Another SOS deputy, Vlad-Andrei Vodra, pays for the car rental an amount equal to his parliamentary allowance
Vlad Andrei-Vidra was elected deputy of Bihor on the lists of SOS Romania. In the declaration of wealth it appears that he owns two cars: a Fiat from 2013 and a VW, also from 2013.
At the Parliament, the deputy was filmed with a Mercedes GLE, not the cars that appear in the declaration of assets.
The registration number of the SUV is similar to the name of the deputy's company: AVV. Vidra owns the company AVV Parts Logistisc.
He also owns shares in four other companies: Coprot SRL, Eurotruck SRL, Arhi Cons Transilvania and Comalin 84 Martin SA.
“The car is with a company, the company appears in the declaration of wealth. The company is called Auto Vest. I guarantee you that it is fine. 2,000 euros pay rent for the car,” the deputy told HotNews.
The amount is almost equal to the allowance that the SOS deputy receives from the Parliament for his activity.
The company Auto Vest is not in the name of the deputy, the shareholder appears, according to termene.ro, Avram Stănosoiu Constantin. Instead, AVV Parts Logistics appears in the deputy's asset declaration.
The companies of the two SOS deputies have business with the state, according to the termene.ro website, for the delivery of auto parts with various local institutions. The values of the contracts are of the order of hundreds or thousands of lei.
