Ministry of Interior officials profited from luxury assets seized from Soviet advisers

CNSAS has published a report exposing how senior officials of the Ministry of Interior appropriated luxury goods from the residences of Soviet advisers who had been housed in specially equipped villas in Bucharest. The villas contained high-end furnishings such as mahogany and rosewood furniture, original Persian carpets, crystal chandeliers, silverware, porcelain, and paintings by noted Romanian painters. When the advisers departed, the assets were meant to stay with the ministry, but officials instead bought them at prices far below their true worth, often without any specialist valuation.

The irregular transactions were later regularised through retroactive approvals signed by Interior Minister Alexandru Drăghici. The report highlights the lack of expert committees, the use of ministry officers to set prices, and the systematic undervaluation that benefited the interior hierarchy.