Teodor Atanasiu

Soon afterward, he married Laura Bișboacă, a 25-year-old employee of the Alba County Council whom Atanasiu brought to Bucharest as an adviser at the Defence Ministry after being named to head that institution.

Among his initiatives as minister were a reorganisation of the ministry, including a fight against corruption there and an elimination of redundancies; rest homes for combatants and houses for soldiers; and compensatory pay for personnel dismissed as part of an ongoing reduction in size of the Romanian Armed Forces.

[8] Other controversies came when he implied but later backed away from the possibility of intervening militarily in Transnistria's frozen conflict; and when he disciplined crew members of the Romanian frigate Regina Maria who went on a hunger strike.

[2] Atanasiu's downfall as minister began in July 2006, when he remarked on television that the military intelligence service was spying on the presidential administration, and specifically on spokeswoman Adriana Săftoiu.

This prompted Săftoiu to sue him for abuse of office,[9] In September, by which time the Social Democratic parliamentarian Eugen Bejinariu had also sued, Băsescu suspended the minister, citing the need to avoid any suspicion that the investigation might be compromised.

[10] Shortly thereafter, prosecutors decided not to pursue charges,[11] but Atanasiu remained suspended and in late October, with Băsescu poised to dismiss him, resigned, despite a vow several days earlier to stay on until a judicial request he had made to be reinstated was resolved.