Bucharest mayor drew the sketch for an unpermitted dig where two workers were buried alive, files show

The bank of soil gave way on Aug. 2, 2021, on Ministry of Culture land behind Romania's National Library in central Bucharest. It buried six men. Marius Moise, 52, and Apostol Costache, 58, died; four others were injured. Recorder reported that the site had no permit and no paperwork at all. In practice it was a Sector 3 city hall job, begun on the mayor's verbal order as part of his plan to redo the area.

Statements in the criminal file and interviews with people who were there describe Negoiță running the work, Recorder found. He allegedly got tacit approval from then-Culture Minister Bogdan Gheorghiu, picked who would build it, set the excavation levels and materials, instructed the site manager from start to finish and told workers to keep going on the day of the collapse. In his statement, the crew's foreman said he warned the site engineer that the banks could cave in. The engineer reportedly replied that he could not change the mayor's conditions because "the mayor wants it" that way. The ministry said in 2021 that it had not ordered or contracted any work there, B365 reported.

Prosecutors named Negoiță a suspect in 2022, eight months after the deaths. When the case went to court on June 18, 2024, they dropped the negligent homicide accusation against him, finding no causal link between his actions and the deaths. He is not a defendant. An abuse-of-office probe was moved to a separate file that, in Recorder's view, appears to be dragging on deliberately. Investigators first asked Sector 3 city hall for documents on the works in August 2026, two years after that file was opened.