ANAF, failure in court in the attempt to seize the assets of the Iohannis family for the recovery of the damage requested from the former president
The request made in court by the Romanian state, through the Regional General Directorate of Public Finances Brașov, to institute the insurance seizure on the assets of the family of former president Klaus Iohannis, was rejected on Thursday by the Sibiu Court, reports Agerpres.
“Today, 20.11.2025, the Sibiu Court ruled in this case regarding the settlement of the request for the establishment of the insurance seizure, in the sense that the court rejected the request made by the plaintiff, the Romanian State, through the General Regional Directorate of Public Finances Braşov, with the object of establishing the insurance seizure on the assets of the defendants in order to guarantee the recovery of the alleged damage”, writes in a response sent by court, at the request of the cited press agency.
The Romanian State, through the Regional General Directorate of Public Finances Braşov, registered with the competent court an action by which it requests the obligation of the former President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, to pay compensation for the lack of use of 1/2 of a building located in the center of the city of Sibiu.
“The Romanian State, through the DGRFP Braşov, registered an action with the competent court requesting the obligation of a former President of Romania to pay compensation for the lack of use of 1/2 of a building located in the center of the city of Sibiu. The action represents a continuation of the steps taken by ANAF for the recognition of the State's ownership right and the recovery of compensation determined by the lack of use of this building”, sent to the National Fiscal Administration Agency, in a press release.
According to the Tax Office, considering that the Iohannis family refused the voluntary payment, in the action the court was also requested to institute security measures on the assets of the spouses, in order to guarantee the recovery of the sums due to the State.
“We assure the public opinion that all legal measures will be taken quickly to protect all the interests of the Romanian State”, stated ANAF representatives.
Klaus Iohannis' debts to the state
In August, the tax office notified Klaus Iohannis that he must pay 4.7 million lei, representing the sum collected from the rents, plus penalties and interest, for one of the buildings in Sibiu that the former president definitively lost in court.
At the beginning of October, ANAF announced in a press release that it had taken over, in accordance with the law, half of a building in the municipality of Sibiu, on Nicolae Bălcescu Street, no. 29 – which belonged to the Iohannis family – as a result of a vacant inheritance collected by the Romanian state, through which it acquired the right of co-ownership.
The former presidential couple owned the building on Nicolae Bălcescu street between 1999-2016, collecting over 320,000 euros from the rent paid by Raiffeisen Bank for the ground floor of the house, according to Rise Project.
With this money, the investigative publication wrote in a 2015 article, Iohannis bought three other houses, thus obtaining other rental income.
In November 2015, the Brașov Court of Appeal determined that the building was illegally owned by the Iohannis. Thus, in April 2016, the family's property title was deleted from the land register.
ANAF sent the Iohannis a legal payment summons, amounting to 4.7 million lei, including penalties and interest.
The head of the Treasury said that he had no indication that the Iohannis wanted to pay the amounts owed
The president of the institution, Adrian Nica, said in October that the Fiscal had, until that moment, no indications that the Iohannis couple wanted to pay the sums owed for the building in Sibiu, in Nicolae Bălcescu street no. 29, and would proceed to initiate the action in court against the two spouses, going to request, in addition to the payment of the sum, insurance measures.
“There was correspondence between ANAF and the two spouses on two levels, once regarding the handover of the building, where they mentioned through the lawyer that they do not have the key and therefore cannot be present at the handover of the building and, on the other level, they requested explanations regarding the calculation of the amounts owed. ANAF provided these explanations. Up to the present date, we have no indications that the two spouses want to pay the amounts owed. ANAF will proceed to the initiation of the action in court against the two spouses and will request, in addition to the payment of the amount, insurance measures on the assets in order to recover the damage owed”, explained the head of ANAF at the time, on B1 Tv.
In September 2024, the Iohannis family lost a second building in Sibiu, on Gheorghe Magheru Street 35. This was one of the disputes that prevented the Romanian state from recovering the space on Nicolae Bălcescu Street despite the court decision of November 2015.
The litigation on which the High Court ruled last September was opened by Rodica Baștea, a friend from Miami of the Iohannis family, who requested the annulment of a certificate from 2008 by which the Romanian state was declared the legal heir of the building at 35 Gheorghe Magheru.
Between 1999 and 2008, the building at 35 Gheorghe Magheru Street belonged to Ioan Baștea, the woman's husband, deceased in the meantime, Georgeta Lăzurcă, the president's mother-in-law, and Carmen Iohannis, his wife.
