The “Nordis” Scheme: How the Most Powerful Political-Real-Estate Clan Made Its Money
FOLLOW-UP – February 3rd, 2025: This morning, prosecutors from the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism carried out raids at 65 addresses in Romania and Monaco, as part of a large-scale investigation into the Nordis business. More than 70 suspects, including the Vicol-Ciorbă couple, are accused of running a fraudulent real-estate scheme since 2018.
The prosecutors are investigating several offenses including forming an organized criminal group, fraud with particularly serious consequences, embezzlement, tax evasion, and money laundering. According to the information we have, the findings published by Recorder are confirmed by the prosecutors’ investigation.
The suspects are accused of selling apartments that existed only on paper, misleading hundreds of clients, and moving the money through a network of companies “affiliated with the criminal structure.”
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Luxury hotels and residential estates in the most important locations in Romania. Nordis prided itself as a grand real-estate project and used national symbols such as the Black Sea or the Carpathian mountains to promote itself, claiming that this Romanian project was being built with Western standards.
Nordis had an intense marketing campaign spreading these ideas. It bought advertising and promos during TV shows, full spreads in magazines and newspapers as well as paid digital articles. All of them featured renderings of the luxury developments promising future buyers heated jacuzzis with a sea or mountain view, all accompanied by a glass of champagne.
To inspire trust, Nordis convinced well-known celebrities and athletes to promote their real-estate projects. It signed a partnership with the Romanian Football Federation and placed adverts on the kits of First League referees.
Hundreds of Romanians rushed to buy apartments and, for a discounted price, most agreed to pay in advance, signing only a promise of sale.
In recent years, millions of euros have flowed into Nordis’ accounts, but most of the promised residential buildings have remained only on paper and in advertisements. In the Mamaia hotel, the only building that has been completed, there are strong indications that the same apartments were sold multiple times to different buyers.
This fraudulent scheme would have not been possible without major weaknesses in the Romanian legislation. Yet the politicians that should address these weaknesses are strongly connected to the Nordis business.
Vladimir Ciorbă, the company’s main associate, is married to Laura Vicol, one of the most influential PSD members of Parliament. Vicol chairs the Legal Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, which plays a key role in the legislative process in the Romanian Parliament.
In the video investigation below you can discover how large this business really is, and how far its political connections reach:
