The Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) has rejected appeals by two prosecutors from the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS), upholding the Prosecutor Vetting Commission’s decision not to promote their evaluations under the ethical and financial integrity criteria of Law No. 26/2022. The prosecutors are:
  • Valeriu Sîrbu, former candidate for the Superior Council of Prosecutors’ Selection and Evaluation Board
  • Corneliu Popescu, former candidate for the Superior Council of Prosecutors’ Discipline and Ethics Board.
The SCJ found that prosecutor Valeriu Sîrbu “failed to dispel the Commission’s doubts about his ethical integrity.” The Court highlighted his involvement in a real estate transaction conducted through a sale-purchase agreement and a donation contract, combined with an undeclared agreement transferring €30,000. Although the property was bought with Sîrbu’s funds, it was registered in his brother’s name.
The SCJ noted that prosecutor Sîrbu described the contracts as “simulated” and “fictitious.” The Court concluded that, without legal justification, he “deliberately used legal forms to disguise the economic reality of the transaction, misleading authorities and the public. This conduct “raises serious doubts about compliance with standards of honesty, transparency, and loyalty to the law.”
Regarding prosecutor Corneliu Popescu’s case, the SCJ found “serious doubts about Popescu’s compliance with integrity criteria.” Key concerns included: apartments purchased below market value through a scheme he was not eligible for, family transactions suggesting simulated asset transfers, and a car registered under his brother’s name but used exclusively by Popescu. In 2016, he declared the car was bought for 170,000 MDL, while his brother reported only 10,000 MDL.
The Court upheld the Commission’s non-promotion conclusion, noting that prosecutor Popescu’s explanations were “general, contradictory, and unsupported by evidence.”
The SCJ decisions are final and have been published on the court’s website:
To date, the Supreme Court of Justice has rejected 10 of the 11 appeals filed against the Prosecutor Vetting Commission’s decisions issued under Law No. 26/2022, with one appeal still pending before the court.