Eight million lei (1.6 million euros) was spent on plastic surgery, cars, parties in luxury clubs and media advertising by Laura Vicol, who is among those investigated in the “Nordis” case in Romania. The expenses of the former MP from the ruling Social Democratic Party (SDP) and wife of the main shareholder of “Nordis” Vladimir Chorba were made with the company's money, it is clear from a report by the Romanian Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), quoted by Digi24.
According to the published information, the former chairwoman of the legal committee in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the Romanian parliament) carried out no less than 8,000 bank operations between April 2019 and this year. Part of the funds spent were justified as protocol expenses, the report also makes clear.
Meanwhile, this afternoon Laura Vicol was taken for a cardiological examination at the Medical Center for Diagnostics and Treatment in Bucharest. According to some judicial sources, this is not an emergency situation, but a control examination. On Wednesday (February 5), she and her husband Vladimir Chorba were taken into pre-trial detention for a period of 30 days.
Earlier this week, prosecutors from the Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism searched addresses in Romania and Monaco and questioned several suspects as part of an investigation into an organized crime group suspected of embezzlement with particularly serious consequences, money laundering, tax evasion and fraud.
According to the indictment, the group had been operating since 2018 and was hierarchically structured at three levels, operating as a pyramid scheme in the real estate sector. Its leaders created numerous commercial companies to attract clients through fictitious property transactions. The amounts received from advances and purchase and sale contracts, estimated at a value of over 195 million euros, were diverted through false transfers, payments to companies controlled by the group and cash withdrawals.
Over 450 affected clients of “Nordis” signed a petition and demand a change in the legislation, informed Digi24. Among them are chronically ill people who hope to get their money back and use it for treatment. By the end of the day, they must meet to decide what further actions to take. They hope to be accepted by the President of the Senate (the upper house of parliament) Ilie Bologjan.