Romania’s influential politician Liviu Dragnea on Monday mocked investigative journalists who announced they are in possession of a suitcase of evidence allegedly proving Dragnea is linked to a company suspected of corruption and EU funds fraud.

Costa Rican authorities announced on Wednesday that they have detained two women wanted by their home country of Romania after being sentenced for abuse of power and corruption.

Two OCCRP journalists were detained by armed Bulgarian police for more than seven hours on Thursday night after they followed a tip that crucial documents were being burned in a field 50 kilometers southwest of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.

Laura Codruta Kovesi, who was removed from her role as Romania’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor earlier this week, will continue her hardline fight against corruption in a new position, local mediareported Thursday.

Romania’s president fired the country’s chief anti-corruption prosecutor after months of escalating conflict between her and the governing Social Democratic Party, local mediareported Monday.

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)