Dan Voiculescu - Secret Police Involvement

Secret Police Involvement

Although he denied it for several years, in 2006 Voiculescu admitted having been a collaborator of the Securitate, Romania's communist-era internal intelligence service, after information to this effect was released publicly by Romania's National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS). At the time, Voiculescu was named to be a Vice Premier in the Popescu-Tăriceanu government, but was ultimately not allowed to take the position because of his involvement with the communist secret police.

CNSAS revealed that Voiculescu acted as an informer for the Securitate by the names of "Felix" and "Mircea". He later claimed that he only collaborated "two or three times" for economic espionage., and he had cooperated with the Securitate as "all Romanians did" during the communist period. The latter statement drew criticism from journalist Cristian Tudor Popescu, who wrote that "Mr. Voiculescu knows very well there were millions of Romanians who didn't have anything to do with the Securitate and others who simply refused to work for it." Voiculescu denies, however, having been an official collaborator (with a signed agreement) or an officer of the Securitate and is appealing the CNSAS' ruling to that effect. He has said he will resign from the Senate if the verdict is not overturned on appeal. He blamed the initial findings against him on Băsescu, who, according to Voiculescu, launched a campaign to undermine him.

Tom Gallagher wrote in a 2004 paper that it is supposed that Dan Voiculescu held the rank of General within the intelligence service before Romania's 1989 anti-communist revolution, but nothing has been proved till now. Ziua newspaper commented however that if Voiculescu was a "covert general" this fact would be extremely hard to prove; official records show that Voiculescu was a reserve army sub-lieutenant.

In July 2006, Camelia Voiculescu, the owner of Jurnalul Naţional, asked for editor Dorin Tudoran's resignation, following an editorial in which he criticized her father, Dan Voiculescu, for his past association with the Securitate.

A verdict however unattested by the Justice, according to the law. The case is pending.

On March 5, 2010, the Court of Appeal upheld that Dan Voiculescu has collaborated with the Securitate during the communist regime, having the conspiratorial name “Felix”. Subsequently, the decision was appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld the Court of Appeal solution.