Bucharest mayor Ciprian Ciucu under judicial control for bribery; TV host Denise Rifai questioned in related gambling probe

The bribery allegations

DNA says that between November and December 2025, when Ciucu was mayor of Bucharest’s Sector 6, two Jordanian-born businessmen offered him advertising and electoral consultancy services intended to support his political campaign. In exchange, the prosecutors allege, Ciucu was to exercise his official duties to advance the administrative procedures for a real-estate project (a multi-level car park) the men were developing. Ciucu has been indicted for taking bribes and was placed under 60-day judicial control on 18 June 2026.

In November 2025, in the context of steps taken to obtain the urbanism certificate and the building permit for a real-estate project, defendants M.N.K.A. and M.M. would have offered undue benefits consisting of advertising and electoral consultancy services (…) meant to support the electoral campaign and political activity of defendant Ciprian Ciucu.

Denying the charges, Ciucu posted on Facebook that people had used his name and had asked for sums in his name during last year’s electoral campaign. “I have not taken a single leu and I did not condition anything,” he wrote. He said he would examine the file with his lawyers.

A trail that begins with a gambling bribe

Prosecutors say the information about Ciucu emerged from a separate investigation. In summer 2025, an employee of the National Gambling Office (ONJN) reported a €100,000 bribe offered by a gambling-firm representative. A Bulgarian citizen was caught red-handed while paying a €50,000 instalment. During that inquiry, DNA says it obtained data about other acts of corruption involving Ciucu, who at the time was still mayor of Sector 6. The gambling file and the Ciucu file have since been formally disjoined.

Odeta Nestor, former ONJN president and a close associate of Ciucu, was arrested on 18 June and placed under preventive detention. She is charged with complicity in bribe-taking, continuous bribery (three material acts), bribe-giving, and instigation to misuse non-public information or allow unauthorised access to it.

A television host drawn into the case

Denise Rifai, a 40-year-old TV presenter who hosts a show on Antena 1, was summoned to DNA headquarters on the evening of 19 June. Judicial sources cited by Romanian media describe her as a suspect for instigation and complicity in bribe-giving. Digi 24 reported that her questioning related to the original gambling-industry file, not to the disjoined Ciucu file. Rifai has consistently denied any involvement.

I do not appear in any criminal file and I did not make any denunciation.

The journalist acknowledged a close friendship with Odeta Nestor, telling Gândul, “Odeta is my friend.” Her employer, Antena 1, issued a statement: “As any Romanian citizen in this legal phase, she benefits from the presumption of innocence. Out of respect for the ongoing procedures, we will make no further comments at this moment.” Earlier in January 2025, investigative outlet Snoop revealed that Rifai had coached former PNL presidential candidate Nicolae Ciucă for the 2024 campaign, a collaboration both acknowledged.

Political reverberations

Ciucu is the first vice-president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) and a key ally of party leader Ilie Bolojan. The party has suggested the timing of the DNA file is not coincidental, although it has not offered details. The case mixes a capital-city mayor’s office, a national gambling regulator, a media personality, and the PNL leadership, making it one of the most watched corruption probes in Romania this year.

What happens next

Ciucu remains under judicial control for 60 days, a measure that restricts his movements and contacts but does not automatically suspend him from office. The prosecutors’ investigation is continuing, with several other individuals already placed under arrest or judicial control. DNA said it is still clarifying details from witness testimony in both the Ciucu and the gambling files.