26 Facts About Dan Voiculescu

Dan Voiculescu is the founder and former president of the Romanian Humanist Party, later renamed the Conservative Party.

Dan Voiculescu was a senator from 2004 until his resignation in 2013.

The Intact Media Group, founded by Dan Voiculescu, includes several major television stations, radio stations, as well as top newspapers and magazines.

Dan Voiculescu was born in Bucharest, in a family of modest means, who lived in the Bariera Vergului neighborhood.

In 1991, Dan Voiculescu founded the Humanist Party of Romania, which changed its name to the Conservative Party in May 2005.

PC ran in a coalition with PSD in the 2008 legislative elections, and Dan Voiculescu was elected senator in a Bucharest district.

Dan Voiculescu was strongly opposed to former Minister of Justice Monica Macovei.

Dan Voiculescu opposed a draft law proposed by Justice Minister Monica Macovei and supported by the European Commission to set up a special agency for checking assets declarations for MPs and other senior officials.

Dan Voiculescu subsequently supported a version characterized as "watered down" by the international media.

In September 2007, Dan Voiculescu resigned from his senator function as a form of protest against the blocking in the Romanian Parliament, of various important social laws.

In November 2008, by occasion of the first elections held in the plurality system, Dan Voiculescu returned to the Romanian Parliament, obtaining 21,708 votes in the 8th college in Bucharest, and in December 2008 he was elected vice-president of the Senate of Romania, with 83 votes for and 2 against.

Dan Voiculescu initiated a bill, now named after him, that allows tenants of buildings that were nationalized during communism to stay in them, while the former owners receive only financial compensation.

At the time, Dan Voiculescu was named to be a vice premier in the Popescu-Tariceanu government, but was ultimately not allowed to take the position because of his involvement with the communist secret police.

CNSAS revealed that Dan Voiculescu acted as an informer for the Securitate by the names of "Felix" and "Mircea".

Dan Voiculescu later claimed that he only collaborated "two or three times" for economic espionage.

Dan Voiculescu has said he will resign from the Senate if the verdict is not overturned on appeal.

Dan Voiculescu blamed the initial findings against him on Basescu, 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 Dan Voiculescu was a "covert general" this fact would be extremely hard to prove; official records show that Dan Voiculescu was a reserve army sub-lieutenant.

Dan Voiculescu denied all the charges, claiming the investigation was politically motivated and that the transactions were legal.

Dan Voiculescu has been accused of other corruption scandals, including an alleged scheme whereby Grivco, a company he owned, bought electrical energy from the state-controlled Rovinari complex, and sold the energy back to Electrica, another state-controlled company, at a large profit.

In October 2009, following some articles in the press, the vice-president of the Romanian Senate, Dan Voiculescu, has undergone a vetting process carried out by the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, verification based on which ANAF has established that the allegations surrounding the senator Dan Voiculescu have no real basis.

On September 26,2013, Dan Voiculescu was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years in prison.

President Basescu has accused Dan Voiculescu of being a "media mogul" who uses his media group to fight political battles.

Dan Voiculescu further accused Voiculescu of trying to control, through the media, the politics of the country.

Dan Voiculescu started a personal blog, showing a much lighter side of his personality, and even began writing satirical guest posts for online journals non-related to his media empire.