General Cătălin Ștefăniță Zisu could have been sent to trial as far back as five years ago when he was investigated by the DNA for charges of influence peddling and bribery. In 2019, a military prosecutor from the DNA shelved the case against the Commander of the Army Logistics. On February 14, 2019, military prosecutor Gheorghe Mihai decided to close the charges against Zisu. At the time, the institution was led by Călin Nistor, the interim head of the DNA.
Two years earlier, in 2017, the DNA from Oradea sent a case to Bucharest, after separating it, involving several military personnel, including Zisu.
The case was separated from an influence peddling file in which high-ranking state officials were sent to trial after intervening to cancel a simple traffic fine received by Iosif Urs, the president of the Titu Maiorescu University in Bucharest.
The Pawns in State Institutions According to prosecutors, in 2016, Alexandru Noapteș, former director of CFR Călători, investigated in several criminal cases, asked Urs to intervene with General Zisu to promote Noapteș’s godson, Gabriel Cătălin Smarandache, a military doctor at the Military Medical Institute.
Earlier, Urs had contacted Noapteș to ask him to intervene with Chief Commissioner Liviu Popa, the former head of the Romanian Police, to avoid paying a traffic fine and having his driver’s license suspended for three months. Popa was already under investigation by the DNA, so prosecutors reached high-ranking military personnel who were to be investigated by the DNA’s military section.
The Promotion on May 1st According to case files, on January 21, 2016, Urs met with Zisu and asked him to promote Smarandache. However, the promotion papers had already been sent to the ministry. „Since Zisu Cătălin Ștefăniță had previously signed promotion documents for the soldiers under his command – ‘he signed the folder the day before yesterday’ – and since it was stated that he could not make other promotions because ‘I sent the folder to the minister, I can’t go with another one now,’ for objective reasons, the promotion of military doctor Smarandache Cătălin Gabriel could not materialize at that time,” the documents show.
However, Zisu promised Urs that he would find another way to promote Smarandache in the near future: „I can’t do it anymore if it wasn’t in the folder, but let them send me the folder, and at the first opportunity, in a month or two… by May 1st, but if not, we’ll find another solution for the promotion!” Zisu said.
Regarding Smarandache, he later testified to the DNA, „I know General Zisu Cătălin Ștefăniță, having been an advisor to ministers Teodor Athanasiu, Teodor Meleșcanu, Mihai Stănișoară, and Gabriel Oprea at the Ministry of National Defense.”
Service for Service During the January 2016 meeting, in exchange for promoting Dr. Smarandache, General Zisu asked Urs to enroll his son, Ștefan Zisu, in the psycho-pedagogical training courses at the „Titu Maiorescu” University in Bucharest for the 2015-2016 academic year, even though the enrollment period had already ended on October 1, 2015.
On January 21, 2016, at Urs’s request, the university secretary enrolled the general’s son with an earlier date. „Thus, Ștefan Zisu made his enrollment request on January 21, 2016, at the secretariat, in the presence of witness Elena Croitoru, and dated it back to September 18, 2015,” the DNA file shows.
Grand Closing In 2019, after the case reached the DNA Central, prosecutor Gheorghe Mihai argued, despite the documents in the case, that the false enrollment of the general’s son in the psycho-pedagogical course was not proven, although the secretary had admitted everything. „The analysis of the evidence did not lead to identifying other proofs, apart from the indications from the technical surveillance measures,” Mihai stated.
Regarding the promotion requested by Noapteș for his godson, the same military prosecutor claimed that „the promotion to the next military rank for military doctor Lt. Col. Smarandache (…) did not occur in 2016, which constitutes another argument that the initial indications regarding the subjective and remunerated exercise of official duties by General-Lieutenant Zisu Cătălin Ștefăniță are not proven.”
Military prosecutor Gheorghe Mihai retired on December 1, 2019, and his superior, Călin Nistor, left office in February 2020.
The Art-Loving General, Who Enjoys Handbags and Alcohol In 2025, Cătălin Zisu is under judicial control on bail after the DNA discovered, following searches, 4,600 paintings, 3,600 bottles of alcohol, 31 luxury watches, and at least 20 Hermes and Louis Vuitton handbags. Additionally, 31 luxury watches were found, including a Richard Mille Skull Tourbillon RM 052 watch, which, if authentic, is worth over 500,000 euros. Most of the other watches were Rolex, some worth 60,000-70,000 euros each.
Cătălin Ștefăniță Zisu was placed under judicial control by the DNA prosecutors on February 15, with a bail of one million lei.
The general – who was put into reserve after the investigation began – is accused in a case involving paid but unperformed work for the expansion of the Ghencea Military Cemetery.
He is charged with abuse of office, with especially serious consequences, in a continued form. The damage in the case is estimated by prosecutors at almost 12 million lei.
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