The Sleepy Files of Daniel Băluță – How the Complaints Rest at DIICOT

Operativ Newspaper is preparing a new feature on the “sleeping files” of Sector 4 mayor Daniel Băluță — a subject that keeps returning to the public’s attention.
For years, several complaints and investigations that should have been resolved by DIICOT seem to have fallen into a deep sleep, hidden from the light and from the uncomfortable questions of a press that has been either bought or intimidated, as revealed in the official report of the U.S. Department of State, a report in which Daniel Băluță takes center stage.
Judicial sources and independent investigations point to a discreet protection network, involving well-known names from the former operational power structures of the state. At the center of these speculations stands Florian Coldea, the former deputy director of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), who is said to have “carefully covered” certain sensitive files — including those concerning Băluță’s circle of influence.
In legal circles, there is ironic talk of a so-called “Patu-Leanu”, where these files are said to have come to rest — a bitter metaphor for the institutional paralysis that has become almost proverbial.
The expression has been picked up by several journalists to describe the inexplicable silence surrounding cases in which names from local administration appear, apparently protected by the heavy shadows of the past.
“The glory days are over,” say sources close to the investigation, “and now even the children know who’s holding the pillow under these files’ heads.”