Măgureanu was one of the members of the Military Tribunal that sentenced to death both Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena on December 25, the Christmas Day of 1989, the former Communist leaders of Romania.
According to the Central Intelligence Agency, Măgureanu was named to the post primarily on the basis of his "dissident" status within Ceaușescu's regime, based on his teachings at the communist party's social science academy during the 1980s.
Initially Măgureanu managed to hide his membership in the Securitate from the post-communist authorities, but his affiliation was exposed by the press years later.
Western intelligence services discovered that immediately after his appointment, in April 1990, Măgureanu met secretly with KGB Chief Evghenii Primakov without informing the political authorities in Romania.
Virgil Măgureanu was deposed as head of SRI in 1997, at the beginning of Emil Constantinescu's mandate as President of Romania.