“I had a moment of escape in my life”

The former head of the Office for Prevention and Fight against Money Laundering, Laurentiu Baranga, accused of falsifying his Baccalaureate degree, admitted his facts and told investigators that he had “a moment of flight in his life” when he made a decision “uninspired,” Agerpres reports.

At the end of last week, the 5th District Court rejected the request of the prosecutors of the Attorney General’s Office for the preventive arrest of Laurentiu Baranga and ordered that he be placed under house arrest for a period of 30 days in the case in which he was accused of fraud. .

The magistrate who made this decision appreciated the fact that Baranga “had a sincere procedural attitude, acknowledged and regretted before the judicial bodies the commission of the facts withheld in his position, corroborating his statements with the other evidence administered in the case.”

Laurentiu Baranga did not want to be heard in court, but, to motivate the decision, the judge inserted a brief extract from the statement of the former head of the Fight against Money Laundering before the prosecutors.

Regarding the accusations, I declare that there was a moment in my life, in which I had a moment of flight, making an uninspired decision, consisting of the fact that, through a person, whose name I cannot remember, I managed to get a Baccalaureate diploma from which it turned out that I did the baccalaureate courses and obtained the Baccalaureate diploma, I mention that that person assured me that obtaining the Baccalaureate diploma will be legal, since I had attended high school courses for 2 years I did not attend high school during 4 years in high school (…), as is clear from the diploma in the file, I did not want to deceive the educational institutions with which I had contractual relationships, because the other diplomas obtained “I also agree to take all the necessary measures to cover the damages caused in the case, “Baranga told prosecutors.

The judge rejected the prosecutors’ proposal for preventive detention, arguing that such a measure would be too harsh.

“We found that the accused had a sincere procedural conduct, acknowledged the commission of the facts withheld in office, at least with regard to the essential elements of the factual situation withheld in the report, expressed regret for the damage to the image of the institutions employers, he said. expressed the intention to take all necessary measures to cover the damages caused in the case, and the case documents show no indication that the defendant would exert pressure on the injured persons or would attempt to make a fraudulent agreement with them and would seek to evade of the criminal investigation ”, says the magistrate.

The judge also points out that Laurentiu Baranga submitted his resignation as president of the National Office for the Prevention and Fight against Money Laundering a few days before being charged, “an aspect that probably outlines the attitude of repentance of the accused, protecting the image of the employing institutions and collaborate with the judicial bodies ”.

Laurentiu Baranga was appointed in early September to head the Office for the Prevention and Fight against Money Laundering, resigning on October 8 from this position.

According to the CV published on the Internet, Baranga graduated from Baccalaureate in 1999, at the age of 32, being graduated from the “Dimitrie Leonid” Technical School in Bucharest, then at the age of 41 he graduated from the Faculty of Management – Ecological University from Bucharest, and at the age of 44 he obtained a doctorate in Management from the Wallachian University of Targoviste.

Baranga also mentioned in his CV that he attended courses at various educational institutions, obtaining numerous degrees and diplomas: mediator, evaluator of professional skills, postgraduate studies at the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Police Academy, student at the National Defense School , member in ARACIS, assistant doctoral student and university professor at the University ‘Titu Maiorescu’ – Faculty of Economic Sciences, associate professor at the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering – Alexandria.

Baranga also states that, from 2009 to September 2020, he was also a counselor, deputy chief of service and deputy director of the Office of the National Registry of State Secret Information (ORNISS).

On the other hand, the Prosecutor’s Office transmitted that Baranga did not fulfill “never and in any way” the quality of deputy of the leader of the ORNISS, and his individual employment contract was suspended in 2016.