Sorin Oprescu was called "The Big Guy". His close collaborators would bring up this nickname in their conversations with businessmen who were supposed to return to the City Hall the lion's share of the profit made from the construction works assigned to them.
The Mayor of Bucharest allegedly pocketed much more bribe money than the sum found in his house on Saturday and prosecutors say they have the footage to prove it. Oprescu's former partners are the ones who turned him over to the authorities, it seems.
The Mayor of Bucharest will not resign and will contest the decision to place him into custody for 30 days.
He called on anticorruption prosecutors to question the people who were in his Ciolpani villa when the "temptation" came to him under the guise of a confidence man bringing a bagful of money as a gift.
Anticorruption prosecutors started to keep close tabs on Sorin Oprescu this spring, when the denouncements came in. The Mayor was quite careful but he allegedly made one mistake!
He and his henchmen met at a restaurant near the City Hall to lay the finishing touches to a contract supposed to fill Oprescu's coffers with 60 thousand euros.
Phone tapping revealed that Oprescu's code name was "The Big Guy." His former chauffeur, Cristian Stanca, also known as Grenade, had become his chief-negotiator with businessmen.
Grenade has joined Oprescu in prison. Only those who aided the prosecutors' investigation were put under house arrest instead.