{"id":39421,"date":"2024-11-28T20:24:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T18:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.riseproject.ro\/?post_type=investigations&p=39421"},"modified":"2025-03-08T21:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T19:17:11","slug":"calin-georgescu-the-first-million","status":"publish","type":"investigations","link":"https:\/\/www.riseproject.ro\/en\/investigations\/uncategorized\/calin-georgescu-the-first-million\/","title":{"rendered":"C\u0102LIN GEORGESCU, THE FIRST MILLION"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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C\u0103lin Georgescu, an Independent Candidate for the Presidential Elections, Refuses to Answer Press Questions During Public Statements. Photo: Mediafax Foto<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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  • The Georgescu family first sold a villa in Corbeanca.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The price? \u20ac1 million.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The buyer was a key figure in the Radu Maz\u0103re-Nicu\u0219or Constantinescu group, the PSD tandem that ruled Constan\u021ba County at the time and is now serving long prison sentences for corruption.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • A few months later, the same businessman also bought the Titan apartment belonging to C\u0103lin Georgescu\u2019s parents.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Meanwhile, the Georgescu family began making real estate purchases in Austria.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The real estate from Austria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    A constant critic of the West, presidential candidate C\u0103lin Georgescu has invested more money in Europe than in Romania.
    At least in real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Georgescu family has spent much of the past years in Austria, where they have also invested hundreds of thousands of euros in real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Together with investigative journalists from the Austrian publication Profil<\/em>, we identified several properties purchased by the Georgescu couple over the past fifteen years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The first transaction took place on June 5, 2011<\/strong>, when the Georgescu family signed a purchase agreement for an apartment worth \u20ac110,000<\/strong> in a town near Vienna. At that time, C\u0103lin Georgescu was in his second year as a UN rapporteur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Satellite images suggest that the old building the Georgescu family bought was demolished and replaced with a new villa.<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Five months later, on November 3, 2011<\/strong>, the Georgescu’s bought a second property in Austria: a villa for which they paid \u20ac410,000<\/strong>. The property is located in Alland<\/strong>, a picturesque town nestled among wooded hills just 30 kilometers from Vienna<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Documents obtained by RISE<\/em> and the transaction chronology suggest that some of the money came from Romania, where the Georgescu couple made their first million euros through another real estate transaction. The money came from a member of the PSD tandem Radu Maz\u0103re \u2013 Nicu\u0219or Constantinescu<\/strong>, a group that has accumulated long prison sentences for corruption, many illegal land restitutions, and shady real estate deals along the coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    On July 25, 2011<\/strong>, businessman Husein Ozghen<\/strong>, a close associate of the Constan\u021ba group, bought a property for 4.27 million RON (nearly \u20ac1 million)<\/strong>, with the money going to Cristela Georgescu,<\/strong> the wife of the presidential candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n\r\n

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    It was a 126 sqm villa in Corbeanca<\/b> with 533 sqm of land<\/b>. The property\u2019s history shows that Andrei Deak<\/b> had previously sold the property to Cristela Georgescu in 2006 for just \u20ac23,000<\/b>.<\/p>\n

    When contacted by phone, Andrei Deak<\/b> struggled to recall the transaction details but confirmed the sale:<\/p>\n

    “I built villas in Corbeanca and sold them. I don\u2019t remember Mrs. Georgescu, but I definitely sold through an intermediary. (\u2026) If the transaction states that it was \u20ac23,000, then that\u2019s what it was.”<\/i><\/p>\n

    Andrei Deak was born in Moscow, USSR, but lives in Romania. According to CNSAS<\/b>, he was recruited by the Securitate in 1979<\/b> and signed a commitment while working as a tour guide for the state-run BTT agency<\/b>. He provided paid reports on foreign students in Romania and tourists, particularly those from the United States and the UK<\/b>. He used the codename “Andi”<\/b>.<\/p>\n

    Documents reviewed by RISE<\/i> indicate that before 1989, he frequently traveled to the USSR, where his family lived. CNSAS sought to confirm his status as a Securitate collaborator<\/b>, but Deak won the case in court<\/b>.<\/p>\n

    *”The court finds that the plaintiff provided information regarding his own connections with foreign citizens, formed due to his professional activity or at the request of security agencies, rather than about other people’s relations with foreigners or Romanians abroad.<\/p>\n

    Since there is no evidence that the reports targeted activities or attitudes hostile to the regime, the court considers it unnecessary to analyze whether providing the information restricted fundamental human rights and freedoms, as both conditions must be met cumulatively,”* the judges’ decision states.<\/p>\n

    Update \u2013 November 30<\/b><\/p>\n

    After the article was published, Andrei Deak sent us the 2006 sales contract.<\/b> It shows that the actual price<\/b> of the Corbeanca property was \u20ac250,000<\/b>, not \u20ac23,000<\/b>, as previously stated in documents reviewed by RISE<\/i>.<\/p>\n\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\n\n\n

    Four months later, on November 10, 2011, Georgescu family signed a new deal with Husein Ozghen. This time, the seller is Aneta Georgescu, C\u0103lin Georgescu’s mother, from whom Ozghen buys a three-room apartment in a communist flat building in Bucharest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The price was 100,000 Euro. But Aneta Georgescu received the right for usufruct, after the sale, meaning that she could continue to live there. C\u0103lin Georgescu had also declared his domicile there, as shown by data from the Trade Register. Ozghen resold the apartment five years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We went to the site to obtain more information about the history of this apartment. We learned that in his youth, C\u0103lin Georgescu and his ex-wife lived there for a short period of time, together with his parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\r\n\r\n

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    <\/p>\n

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    <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    \u201cThey didn\u2019t stay long. At the time, it was said that through his father, Scarlat Georgescu, C\u0103lin Georgescu became a protegee of Mali\u021ba (Mircea Mali\u021ba, former communist dignitary) and of Bleahu (former minister of the environment in the early 90s). After that, I found out that he had been transferred to a new flat in a building, where mostly securitate was accomodated and from there he went to study in Great Britain and America,\u201d said one of the neighbors, who added that after the death of his parents, the apartment was sold \u201cto some important people.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe don\u2019t know who, but I remember that it had a Turkish name. They took everything out of the house, some pieces of furniture ended up with the neighbors, and then they sold it. And since then, I have never seen C\u0103lin Georgescu again.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Mircea Mali\u021ba was deputy minister of foreign affairs and minister of education and training during the communist period. Between 1982-1985 he was also the Ambassador of Romania to the United States of America. Marcian Bleahu was the Minister of the Environment (1991-1992) and a former senator from the Ecological Movement of Romania.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n\r\n\n\n\n

    At the time of the two transactions in 2011, Cristela Georgescu was working at CitiBank Romania, and C\u0103lin Georgescu was replaced by Vasile D\u0103nu\u0163 Precup in a private company where he was active for some time. Precup is another close associate of Sorin Strutinsky (a businessman and a traditional member of the Maz\u0103re group). Precup was also one of the shareholders in the residential project on the seaside, Mamaia Investments, an investment estimated at 170 million euros, which was then in the authorization phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The project was never finalized. The land was investigated by the Anti Corruption prosecutors, being on the list of illegal restitutions, a case that brought Radu Maz\u0103re a sentence to 9 years in prison. Next to Precup, as shareholders in Mamaia Investments, were two Portuguese investors and two Austrian companies, now liquidated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We contacted Husein Ozghen, the man who purchased the properties from the Georgescu family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The businessman said it is a pure coincidence that he bought both the house in Corbeanca and the apartment in Titan from Georgescu. He claims that he did not know him and did not know that he was close to the Maz\u0103re group. And 1 million euros does not seem like a lot to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cIt was a good price, it was a villa in Corbeanca, I did not know Georgescu. I do not know if he knew anyone else in Constan\u021ba,<\/em>\u201d Husein Ozghen told RISE Reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Former mayor of Constan\u021ba, Radu Maz\u0103re, alongside former president of the Constan\u021ba County Council, Nicu\u0219or Constantinescu. Photo: Mediafax Foto<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    THE BUSINESS GROUP FROM THE SEASIDE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Husein Ozghen<\/strong>, 73, when he bought the properties from the Georgescu family in 2011, he was a business partner involved in the real estate business together with Maz\u0103re \u2013 Sorin Strutinsky \u2013 Constantinescu. All three of them were sentenced, one by one, to prison for influence peddling, abuse of office or bribery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Ozghen was a traditional business partner of Nicu\u0219or Constantinescu, the former president of the Constan\u021ba County Council, sentenced in 2019 to ten years in prison for corruption. Likewise, Ozghen was also a partner with Radu Maz\u0103re, the former mayor of Constan\u021ba sentenced to five years in prison in the same case for bribery, but also with Sorin Strutinsky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    D\u0103nu\u021b Vasile Precup, 66,<\/strong> was also in the entourage of the seaside group. On November 24, 2009, Precup became a partner in Medisport Serv SRL, replacing C\u0103lin Georgescu. It was the period when the real estate project in Mamaia was taking shape, in which he was also a shareholder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Separately, Precup was involved in the business entourage of Sorin Strutinsky, the traditional partner of the Maz\u0103re-Constantinescu group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Precup even became the administrator of a company of the Maz\u0103re group that aspired to public money by offering radiology services. Strutinsky was also sentenced to ten years in prison for influence peddling, but fled to Italy. Where he is an employee of a company owned by a Cypriot company, involved in the big business of the Maz\u0103re-Constantinescu group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Precup also ran businesses together with the son of Nicolae V\u0103c\u0103roiu, former prime minister and former president of the Romanian Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According to our information, the Maz\u0103re group had tried, two years earlier, to propose C\u0103lin Georgescu as minister in the PDL-PSD Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    The links between the Georgescu family, businessman Husein Ozghen and the group from Constanta \u2013 Maz\u0103re, Nicu\u0219or Constantinescu, Sorin Strutinsky<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    After a few years spent on the wooded hills near Vienna, the Georgescu couple decided to move to G\u00fcnselsdorf, a town also located near the Austrian capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In July 2017, the Georgescu couple sold the property they had bought in 2011 for double the purchase price \u2013 950,000 euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Then, a few days later, the two bought a house with land and a swimming pool on the edge of a wooded neighborhood in G\u00fcnselsdorf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The purchase price \u2013 530.000 Euro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Not far from their new home, near a castle, Cristela Georgescu operated a wellness office. Between 2019-2021, the wife of the current presidential candidate was authorized to carry out bioresonance treatments in that facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Exactly four years after the purchase, in 2021 the Georgescu couple sold this property for 599.000 Euro and decided to return home to Romania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It is just not clear what happened with the million Euro, the total budget of these real estate transactions . The statements of assets submitted to the Central Electoral Bureau this year, when entering the presidential race for Cotroceni, provides a different financial reality and a more modest financial situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n