Nicușor Dan called the government after the Anastasiu scandal broke out. What did the president find out
Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu shakes his hand with President Nicușor Dan, after taking the investment oath. Bucharest, June 23, 2025. PHOTO: AGERPRES
President Nicușor Dan did not know about the file in which Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu acknowledged that his companies have been bribes for 8 years to an ANAF inspector, official sources for HotNews.ro on Monday.
The head of state was in Austria at the end of last week, when the scandal broke out in the center of which was the government official. And when Nicușor Dan called the Government to send to the Executive what he thinks about the scandal, the president was told that the decision on the resignation of Dragoș Anastasiu had already been taken, the same official sources said for HotNews.
The vacation decree of the position of Deputy Prime Minister has not yet arrived at the Cotroceni Palace, the sources quoted added.
Deputy Prime Minister Dragoş Anastasiu announced his resignation on Sunday, in a press conference over an hour, in which he talked about the context in which, for eight years, during 2009-2017, his company bribed an ANAF employee. He claimed that the context in which he agreed to give bribe was “one of major crisis” and it was about “survival bribe” in the face of state abuses.
After refusing to comment on the case on the grounds that he was not informed, Nicușor Dan had on Saturday the first statement regarding the disclosures of the press about a company of Dragoș Anastasiu, who bribed an ANAF official for 8 years. Asked by the case by the journalists present in Salzburg where the president paid an official visit, Nicușor Dan had a short statement, according to Agerpres.
“It's a big problem, it's a big problem. So much,” was the only statement made on Saturday by the president. Asked if he discussed with Prime Minister Bolojan, Nicușor Dan said “No”.
The day before, during a press conference, Nicușor Dan said that he has no information about the disclosures on the file in which Dragoș Anastasiu stated before the prosecutors that his company gave a bribe to the ANAF employee, a inspector who was subsequently convicted for her deed.
“I do not have this information. Let me inform myself, that I hear the first time from you,” said the head of state on Friday.
The file in which Anastasiu was involved
For 8 years, between 2009-2017, the companies of Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu bribed an ANAF inspector in order not to have problems with controls, according to a DNA investigation, completed two years ago with a definitive sentence of the officer who took a bribe. Anastasiu acknowledged the bribe of ANAF employee both in front of DNA and judges.
On Friday night, DNA reported for G4Media that Anastasiu was a “whistlewiter” in the bribe file at ANAF, “which is why the prosecutors ordered” to him.
The representatives of the Government of Romania claimed that the “circumstances of the case” in which Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu acknowledged in court that his company gave a bribe to an ANAF inspector “have nothing to do with the quality of deputy prime minister and to the duties of Dragoș Anastasiu”.
On Saturday, Dragoș Anastasiu came out with a replica after the DNA details that the current Deputy Prime Minister and his business partner “had the capacity of denouncing witnesses” in the criminal file in which an ANAF inspectors was convicted of bribery. In a message published on Facebook, Anastasiu asked the anti-corruption prosecutor's office to provide the “alleged denunciation” that he registered in the file. He denied those transmitted by the DNA that he had the capacity of “denunciation witness” in the file that led to the sentence to 5 years and 2 months in prison of ANAF Angela Burlacu.
