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Three lawyers and a bank manager stand accused of property fraud
The prosecutors of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), on Thursday morning, carried out 47 home searches resulting in bringing charges against 25 people, among whom there are three lawyers from Bucharest, a bank branch manager and a chief archivist with the District 1 Land Survey Service in Bucharest.
They stand accused of belonging to a group that is involved in real estate fraud, which caused one million euros worth of damages.
According to a DIICOT release sent to Agerpres on Thursday, the 25 people are charged with setting up an organized criminal group, with fraud and forgery.
Prosecutors found out that the group, between 2008 and 2010, managed to cheat ten people into buying property worth 100,000-400,000 euros, which did not belong to them.
The group's modus operandi was to find property in Bucharest - lands with or without buildings on it, empty and either well preserved, or neglected - and to forge documents such as: titles, heir certificates, or other notaries' papers alongside IDs, having as accessory to their fraud clerks with the land survey service and real estate advertising within state institutions and other people specialized in manufacturing dies and other insignia.
The accused used forged papers to mislead the people interested in property investments, as well as the representatives of notary offices, into buying or mortgaging the estates to get loans from banks without the rightful owners' knowledge.