Georgescu robbed his own Romanians as a member of an international crime ring

On Monday evening, Călin Georgescu, the winner of the first round of Romania's 2024 presidential election that was manipulated by Russia, was taken into custody for 24 hours. DIICOT (the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism) will request a thirty-day pretrial detention for him — this time, however, not in connection with the case concerning attacks on the constitutional order, but over a fraud involving more than 1.1 million euros; businessman Ionel Rusen was also detained in the same case. The third person implicated is Massimiliano Arena, an Italian financial entrepreneur.

According to DIICOT, the story began in 2021. Businessman Răzvan Leu was promised a loan of six million euros if he first put up a deposit of one million euros. He transferred the money, but the loan never arrived; he was then told that the financing could be raised to as much as 15 million euros, but that this would require another hundred thousand euros. Investigators claim this sum was intended for Georgescu's later presidential campaign; in the end, the complainant received neither the loan nor his deposited money back.

The money's trail is not simple either

According to DIICOT, the actors behind the loan fraud created the appearance of legitimate banks, while one of the financial entities was linked to the Comoros and the company receiving the transfer was linked to Dominica; the latter's account was held at a Swiss bank. Citing judicial sources, Digi24 also identified actors with Russian business connections within the financial network. What is particularly infuriating about the case is that it did not just surface out of nowhere. According to Leu's lawyer, the complaint was filed on January 31, 2024 with the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), from where the case was later transferred to DIICOT — and Digi24 already wrote about the businessman's claims back in December 2024.

The connections between the network's actors are being reconstructed with the help of Ion Negoescu. The former Interior Ministry official, who is today an honorary priest, was questioned as a witness; according to his own account, he introduced Leu to Georgescu, Georgescu introduced them to Rusen, and Rusen later introduced Arena. Negoescu claims he has no direct knowledge of subsequent events. G4Media also pointed out that Negoescu comes from the same commune in Argeș County where Georgescu's family settled after returning from Austria; the two men had already appeared together at a local public event back in 2016. However, the events described by Negoescu in his witness testimony show how the case's actors came to be connected to one another. If Georgescu's political rise was part of a pre-planned Russian scheme, then we must admit that some of his political connections were built in plain sight all along — and even so, we failed to understand what he was up to.

The story of Arena and Wealth Bank was already investigated in detail by Italy's IrpiMedia back in May 2025. According to the investigative journalists, Wealth Bank offered financial services in Italy without a license, and the Comoros banking authorization linked to it was declared illegal and fraudulent by the Comoros central bank. The Italian journalists spoke to clients who claimed they were unable to access the money they had deposited. According to IrpiMedia, the Swiss account number cited in the Romanian businessman's complaint also appeared in the transfers of an Italian complainant. Arena is also implicated in criminal proceedings in Italy; he defended Wealth Bank's authorization to the Italian outlet, and at the time said he did not wish to comment substantively on the Romanian complaint until he received official notification.

The searches also turned up a few curiosities

According to DIICOT, signal-jamming devices, data storage devices, two passports and an identification card were seized; the documents are being examined by experts, as there is a high probability they are forged. Investigators found a card issued in Georgescu's name that appeared to be a diplomatic document of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. However, the order's ambassador to Romania stated that Georgescu is not a member and that the order does not issue such cards. So around the proud Orthodox self-styled savior of the nation, a fake Maltese diplomatic card has also surfaced, although it is still up to the investigation to determine where it came from and whether it was ever used for anything.

Meanwhile, Russian media reported as early as the morning that Georgescu had been arrested, when in fact the search was still underway and no one had yet been taken into custody. By evening, Georgescu was indeed detained for 24 hours, but that does not make the morning report accurate: at that point, it could not yet have been known what decision the prosecutors would make after questioning — tomorrow it will be up to the judge to decide on the thirty-day pretrial detention.

Opinion