Over and over again, Romanian horse meat laced with cadmium made its way into European markets. A new investigation finds that the companies involved used counterfeit documents — issued by Romanian veterinarians overseen by food safety officials.

Credit: Edin Pasovic, OCCRP

The head of the Social Democratic party (PSD) and one of Romania’s most powerful politicians was sentenced on Thursday to 3.5 years in prison for abuse of power, The Guardian reported. He is expected to appeal.

Romania’s former President Traian Basescu, now a senator, is a key figure in the legal defense strategy of his protégé, Elena Udrea.

Elena Udrea and former president Traian Basescu at a Popular Movement Party meeting in Constanta, Romania on May 2, 2014.

Amid a wave of opposing anti-corruption and pro-government protests, Romania’s lower house of parliament approved amendments to the country’s criminal procedure that critics argue would make the country more amenable to high-level corruption, Reuters reported Monday.

A day after 100,000 supporters of Romania’s Social Democratic party protested against what they see as a misuse of power by anti-corruption prosecutors, 3,000 people gathered at the same spot on Sunday for an opposing rally, the Associated Press reported.

Romania’s recent reforms on criminal procedure and legislative processes lack transparency and the ability to keep corruption in check, said a report from the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body, released on Wednesday.

Austrian and Romanian authorities have arrested 11 suspects of organized migrant smuggling and seized documents, phones and money while searching 25 properties, the EU’s Judicial Cooperation Unit, Eurojust, said in a statement on Tuesday.

An appeal court is expected to rule on a peculiar corruption case in Timisoara, Romania, involving a former police chief and a suspended judge who are accused of using their Freemason connections to accept bribes and shield acquaintances from criminal investigations,  Balkan Insight reported.

Land belonging to a Romanian military base used by NATO for sensitive training exercises is actually owned by influential Syrian businessmen related or connected to dictator Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of the Russian government. The unlikely landlords got ahold of the land thanks to the local abuse of laws intended to restore property confiscated by Romania’s Communist regime in the 1940s and 1950s.

Tens of thousands of Romanians braved heavy snow in Buchareston Saturday to protest bills passed by parliament seen as weakening anti-corruption efforts.

Facing accusations of corruption, a former Romanian mayor left the country just before New Year’s, taking refuge in Madagascar.

The Mantasaly resort. (Mantasaly.com)

Romania’s lower house of parliament passed a bill on Monday that is believed to threaten anti-corruption efforts and judicial independence, reported Reuters.

Romania’s anti-graftprosecutors haveindicted on Monday the head of the ruling Social Democrats (PSD), Liviu Dragnea, suspected of forming a “criminal group" that has embezzled US$ 24.4 million in EU funds.

More than 10,000 people rallied in Bucharest on Sunday against a proposal by Justice Minister Tudorel Toader that would overhaul the judicial system and undermine the country’s anti-graft efforts.

The Bucharest office of RISE Project, an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) partner, underwent an unannounced inspection by the anti-fraud bureau of Romania’s National Fiscal Agency (ANAF) even as important Romanian politicians threatened the outlet in both public and private.

Officers from the Romanian Anti-Fraud Authority at the offices of RISE Project, OCCRP's Romanian partner, during a surprise inspection. (Photo: RISE Project)

Romanian authorities said Tuesday they detained six people suspected of belonging to an organized criminal group that trafficked children to Paris and forced them to steal and beg on the streets.

Costel Comana, 53, was a Romanian millionaire about to be indicted for corrupt business deals in his native country when he hanged himself in the toilet of an Airbus just before the plane landed in Costa Rica.

A Bucharest court sentenced Tuesday Romania’s former tourism minister Elena Udrea to six years in prison for misusing government funds and demanding bribes from private firms contracted by her ministry.

About half a million Romanians all over the country continued their anti-corruption protests Sunday evening, demanding that the Prime Minister and his cabinet resign even after the government scrapped the controversial corruption decree that prompted week-long rallies.

Anger over a government decree that could free dozens of corrupt officials triggered the largest protests Romania has seen since the 1989 revolution and prompted one of the country’s ministers to resign on Thursday.