Officials of the Social Assistance Division of the Balti mayor’s office are investigated for dispossessing socially vulnerable people of homes. Anticorruption officers carried out searches in this criminal case on Wednesday and a unit head was detained, IPN reports.

The National Anticorruption Center noted that it is a corruption scheme to abusively dispossess of homes socially vulnerable persons registered with the General Social Assistance and Family Protection Division of the Balti mayor’s office. At least two elderly persons were left homeless after allegedly signing documents to donate apartments for the benefit of officials of the Division.

It was established that the given officials, abusing their authority and acting in material interests, took advantage of the difficult situation of a person due to the loss of physical, mental or intellectual capacities. They notarized a power of attorney by which they empowered a social worker to administer all the person’s assets. Through that power of attorney, the social worker was designated as the exclusive heir of all the person’s assets, the actions being directed towards the illegal dispossession of the owned immovable property.

In another episode, the same officials, using the precarious situation of another beneficiary of home social care services, drafted and authenticated powers of attorney and lifetime maintenance contracts through which the owner entrusted them with the right to use his property.

The anticorruption officers and prosecutors are also examining a case of transmission of €5,000 by an employee of the Social Assistance Division of the Balti mayor’s office to decision-makers of the subdivision. The money was allegedly asked by the employee’s superiors for not to disclose the supposedly illegal acts committed by him, but also in order not to create impediments in his work.