A stash of documents apparently buried for over a year and discovered by chance has revealed incriminating links between the leader of Romania’s ruling coalition, Liviu Dragnea, and controversial construction company Tel Drum.

Investigative journalism portal RISE Project Romania says it has come into the possession of a bag filled with documents, a tablet and an external hard disk that appear to belong to top managers of Tel Drum, which is being investigated for frauds.

The company was already believed to be controlled by Dragnea, the president of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD). The politician had previously denied any connection to Tel Drum, but the documents directly link him to officials from the company.

Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) started an investigation into Dragnea in November 2017, on suspicion of organising a criminal group, forgery and abuse of office. The aim of the group was to siphon money from EU-funded projects coordinated by Teleorman county council, which Dragnea headed when the group was set up in 2001, the DNA said at the time. The group allegedly coordinated the county council’s auctions with Tel Drum officials with the aim of helping the latter win lucrative road rehabilitation contracts.

Last November, assets worth RON127.5mn (€28mn) were frozen as the DNA initiated criminal investigations against Dragnea and several other people in a case related to public contracts awarded to Tel Drum. However, the case has lost momentum recently.

RISE said that the documents and the devices have already been investigated and confirmed as authentic, and they will be gradually revealed after thorough investigations.

The bag was buried shortly before anticorruption prosecutors searched Tel Drum offices in summer 2017, RISE journalists explained. It was found by chance by an inhabitant of a rural area in Teleorman county, where Dragnea previously headed the county council, the report claims. The man who found them approached the RISE Project’s regional representative in the county and delivered the documents. 

The electronic devices and the paper documents surprisingly survived the winter and are in perfect condition.

As yet, it remains unclear whether the newly discovered data incriminate Dragnea in wrongdoing or confirm him as the real owner of Tel Drum, a bearer shares company. 

Dragnea ruled Teleorman county, including the public administration and the state owned entities, with an authoritarian style, but it is not clear whether DNA prosecutors have collected the necessary evidence to demonstrate fraud.

The DNA’s case is based on a notification sent by the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF) in 2016, regarding suspicions of several crimes, including illegally obtaining EU funds for road rehabilitation works, based on forged documents, the DNA claimed. However, in October 2018 it surfaced that OLAF had never investigated Dragnea. The documents in the bag found in Teleorman come just in time to support the DNA’s case with alternative evidence.

Meanwhile, sources quoted by Realitatea TV claim the bag was never lost, but carefully protected by the former deputy-head of the intelligence services (SRI) Florian Coldea. Coldea served as deputy-head of the SRI until February 2017 and interim head in early 2017, when he was dismissed by the new SRI head Eduard Hellwig. During their time in office, Coldea and former SRI head Liviu Maior actively supported the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) while it was headed by Laura Codruta Kovesi — a partnership seen by some (including Dragnea) as created by the US intelligence agencies. Coldea was dismissed amid scandals related to controversial protocols signed between the DNA and the SRI. 

By delivering the bag of documents to RISE and to the DNA, Coldea is negotiating his comeback, Realitatea TV’s sources claimed. The bag of documents surfaced after Kovesi was dismissed and as the ruling coalition headed by Dragnea is close to appointing a loyal candidate.