The competition’s top prize, named Super Writing of the Year, went to a series of ten investigative stories that focused on Liviu Dragnea, the head of the Chamber of Deputies and of the ruling Social Democrat Party. Reporters revealed that Dragnea and his friends are linked to a company that may have been involved in corruption and money laundering."
“The tax authorities will see this money,” said RISE Project reporter Victor Ilie during the ceremony. He was referring to anti-fraud inspectors visiting RISE Project's newsroom on the same day when reporters were to publish one of the stories about him.
Ilie explained that the prize is shared by a dozen of reporters who conducted their investigation over two continents and exposed that Dragnea’s connections reached all the way to Brazil.
The same series also won the First Prize in the Investigation category. The Second Prize went to Ilie himself for a package of stories that exposed the black market of drugs for serious illness.