Businessman seized $7 million on suspicion of financing election fraud in Romania

Investigators have seized seven million dollars from Bogdan Peschir, who financed the TikTok campaign of Calin Georgescu, after searches that lasted all night at his residence in Brasov.

The searches began on Saturday morning and ended at night, with several devices, computers and storage media seized from three residences of Bogdan Peschir in Brasov, Agerpres reports.

The devices were subjected to a computer search, after which it was ordered to transfer the amount of $7 million from Peschir's account to ANABI's accounts. At the end of the hearings, prosecutors decided to release Bohdan Peshchir without imposing any preventive measures.

Prosecutors claim that the investigation concerns the businessman's possible involvement in the illegal financing of the election campaign of Calin Georgescu by using money that, according to available indications, could have been obtained from the commission of certain crimes that were later involved in the process of money laundering."

According to the investigation documents, Bogdan Peschir used the account "bogpr" through which he made donations on TikTok in the amount of more than a million euros to finance the Georgescu campaign. After it became the subject of public debate, the participation of "bogpr" in financing the promotion of Calin Georgescu at the platform level was also confirmed by TikTok representatives in a dialogue with the Romanian authorities on November 28.

On Friday, the Romanian Constitutional Court decided to cancel the results of the first round of the presidential election held on December 1. The winner of the first round, Kelin Georgescu, criticized the court's decision, calling it a coup d'etat.

In late November, the Romanian Central Election Bureau began a court-ordered recount of all ballots cast in the first round of the presidential election, following accusations that the winner, Kelin Georgescu, had illegally used tiktok to boost his campaign.

Кирило Бойко