Located near Bazilescu Park, in the Bucurestii Noi neighborhood in the north of the capital, February 16 Square covers approximately 1,500 square meters.
For almost two decades, Piața 16 Februarie, in the capital, was under the administration of Nicolae Cristescu, a freemason and former financier of the Rapid club, accused by DIICOT and tried for forming a criminal group and blackmail, writes the investigative website Snoop.
The contract between Nicolae Cristescu’s company and the Sector 1 City Hall expired a year ago, but he refuses to hand over the market and sued the institution.
What the mayors promised
“For 25 years, Piața 16 Februarie has been captive in the hands of the PSD and PNL clientele from Sector 1. This spring, we notified the 200 merchants that we would take it over in order to modernize it to Western standards and stop paying taxes to the PSD piggy bank. In August, we will clean it up and reopen the market for all residents of Sector 1,” wrote Clotilde Armand, the former mayor of Sector 1, in May 2024.
On August 6, 2024, a day after the contract expired, a team of officials from the city hall and the Local Police, led by the deputy mayor at the time, Oliver Păiuși (USR), went to Piața 16 Februarie to take control of it. However, Nicolae Cristescu refused to sign the handover process and vacate the space.
“I went with a team of about 40 officials, because I noticed an illegality. We were denied access, the director of the Sector 1 Police was not allowed to do his job, we were simply blocked by several people,” Oliver Păiuși told Snoop.
According to Snoop’s sources, the businessman then told the police that he “has everyone in his hands.”
And the current mayor of Sector 1, George Tuță, promised several times during the electoral campaign for the local elections that took place last year that he would “quickly” restore 16 February Square, if he won the mayoral seat.
Tuță: “Something totally abusive”
A year has passed since the contract expired and nothing has changed.
Mayor Tuță explained to Snoop that, although the concession was between the Local Council and Nicolae Cristescu’s Teomod company, the city hall did not take the steps to give the mayor a mandate not to extend the contract. Thus, Cristescu went to court. “It was a legal complication, but it is finalized. Now there is a council decision by which I was empowered to terminate that contract,” Mayor Tuță explained to Snoop.
Tuță admitted that what is happening in Piața 16 Februarie is “something totally abusive” and that he personally spoke with the former mayor of the capital, Nicușor Dan, and the current interim mayor, Stelian Bujduveanu, to have the order to demolish the unauthorized constructions signed.
How much money did Cristescu make from Piața 16 Februarie?
“I was a loyal and good-faith partner of the city hall, the city hall made a profit,” claims Cristescu.
In 16 years, from 2009 to 2024, the City Hall of Sector 1 collected a total of 5,922,928.21 lei, the equivalent of approximately 1,531,155 dollars. The amounts going to the local administration began to decrease considerably starting in 2016, in some cases the receipts being four times lower than the first years for which there is official data.
