Romania's DIICOT expands Nordis criminal probe against former PSD deputy Laura Vicol

Expanded criminal charges in Nordis case

Romanian prosecutors at the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) have widened the criminal prosecution against Laura Vicol, a former Social Democratic Party deputy. The DIICOT Central Structure issued the order on 30 September 2026 and announced it publicly on 1 October 2026, bringing new allegations of continuous false declarations, continuous money laundering, and complicity in fraud. Investigators state that the alleged actions occurred during Vicol's parliamentary mandate between 2020 and 2025, during which she also served as the chair of the Legal Committee in the Chamber of Deputies. Although official institutional statements did not name Vicol directly, judicial sources confirmed her status as the target of the measure. The wider Nordis investigation covers charges of organized crime group formation, large-scale embezzlement, tax evasion, and fraudulent real estate transactions.

Omissions in parliamentary asset declarations

According to DIICOT, Vicol deliberately concealed extensive personal financial assets across successive mandatory declarations filed between 2020 and 2025. Prosecutors identified over 15.6 million lei in undeclared earnings derived from salaries, dividends, and loan repayments. Her filings also omitted a granted loan of 910,000 lei, contracted loans totaling 241,000 lei and 35,000 US dollars that were repaid between 2019 and 2021, and undeclared gifts and services valued above 300,000 lei. DIICOT maintains that these omissions were intended to evade integrity oversight and hide illicit revenue linked to companies within the group.

From the criminal investigation documents, it emerged that during 2020-2025, in her capacity as a deputy in the Parliament of Romania, intentionally and based on the same criminal resolution, she untruthfully completed asset declarations regarding income, debts, granted loans, gifts, and other advantages, to produce legal consequences for herself, namely evading legal liability for funds collected directly or indirectly from group companies, concealing illicit income sources, and avoiding integrity oversight.

Fictitious loan and money laundering mechanism

The expanded investigation also focuses on a transaction involving an alleged fictitious loan recorded in Vicol's official filings. The documentation initially recorded a loan granted to another defendant in the case for 150,000 euros and 1,774,000 lei, which was subsequently adjusted to 1,124,000 lei. Using this recorded legal act as justification, Vicol collected 1,595,000 lei from a female suspect under the pretense of a loan reimbursement. Prosecutors state that this maneuver was designed to obscure the origin of the funds, which Vicol allegedly knew had been acquired through corporate embezzlement from company accounts.

Complicity in Mamaia and Sinaia real estate sales

DIICOT further alleges that Vicol assisted three co-defendants in carrying out property fraud between 2019 and 2025. Despite holding no official statutory position within the investigated corporate entities, she supported the negotiation and execution of sales promises and purchase agreements for holiday apartments in Nordis residential complexes in Mamaia and Sinaia. Prosecutors found that the properties involved in these transactions were never constructed or never delivered to their purchasers. In one documented case, an individual buyer suffered financial damages exceeding 122,000 euros as a result of the deception. All persons under investigation retain the legal presumption of innocence under Romanian law.