Will Georgescu become the next president?
Călin Georgescu, arrested by police. Credit: Digi
You probably remember Călin Georgescu, the Romanian politician who was barred from running in the May 2025 presidential election, after Romania's Central Electoral Commission and the Constitutional Court rejected his candidacy. The reason was that the annulled 2024 election had been fundamentally compromised by electoral irregularities and that the constitutional requirements governing access to the presidency had to be applied in light of those findings.
In spite of suspicions surrounding his nationalist and anti-European sentiments, as well as allegations of sympathy for the Kremlin, Georgescu remains one of Romania's most popular politicians — and, according to the latest national CURS survey measuring political trust, the most trusted one.
The poll, conducted between 14 and 24 July 2026 among 1,108 Romanian adults, found that 33% of respondents had “a lot” or “very much” trust in Georgescu. That put him ahead of President Nicușor Dan, at 30%, and populist MP George Simion, at 24%.
Recently, however, Georgescu surprised both the public and the prosecutors.
During a search of his home on 21 September, officers of DIICOT — Romania's Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism — reportedly found at least three documents bearing his name that purported to give him diplomatic or quasi-diplomatic status.
One was a “Diplomatic ID” identifying Georgescu as a “Senator” of the Order of Malta and “Prior of United States of America.” Another was a purported diplomatic passport, also identifying him as the U.S. Prior. A third document was a service passport issued by the European Asian Trade Mission, or EATM.
There was just one problem.
The Order of Malta says Georgescu is not its member — and that it never issued any such document to him. The Order's Romanian embassy also warned that several imitation orders operating in Romania have improperly used the real Order's symbols.
And once you look closely at Georgescu's supposed diplomatic credentials, things get considerably stranger.
What the images show
Let us have a look at the images with the fake documents. The first image is a purported “Diplomatic Passport” issued in the name of Călin Georgescu, valid 15 May 2025 – 14 May 2030.
It identifies him as “Senator Georgescu Calin” and gives his supposed position as “Prior of United States of America.”
The document claims that the passport was issued under the 1961 Vienna Convention and recorded in an “official Diplomatic Register” at the U.S. State Department.
The second image is a “Diplomatic ID” again identifying Georgescu as “Senator” and “Prior.” So, this is not merely an ordinary membership card either. Whoever produced these documents was presenting Georgescu as someone holding an international or diplomatic office.
Poor English language
The documents are in English, which is spectacularly bad. For example:
“We thanks in advance everyone will help him his mission” – which is grammatically indefensible.
It also says: “…has been recorded in the official Diplomatic Register keeps in the State Department office – USA.”
Again, this is not remotely the normal diplomatic English. I suspect it is a word-by-word translation from Romanian – or perhaps another language.
There is also this expression: “Who it concerns”
instead of the conventional “To whom it may concern.”
There are additional problems. Consider this: “Vienna Convention 1961 April 18” – rather than the normal formulation referring to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of April 18, 1961 or 18 April 1961 as I prefer in my writings.
The “wrong” Order of Malta
Language accuracy is not, however, the biggest problem. It’s the name of the institution. The document names the “Sovereign Order Hospitalliers of Saint John of Jerusalem O.S.J.” as the issuer. But the authentic institution is officially named the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta.
What do we have here?
1. “Military” is missing.
2. “of Rhodes and of Malta” is missing.
3. “Hospitalliers” is not the English name used by the real Order. The authentic English formulation is Hospitaller.
4. It uses “O.S.J.” rather than the authentic Order's institutional identity, commonly abbreviated S.M.O.M.
And here’s the cherry – the Grand Priory of Austria of the actual Sovereign Order of Malta explicitly warns about organizations using these names and symbols. Its official alert specifically lists “Orden von Malta – Knights of Malta OSJ” among the pseudo-orders it warns against.
The Austrian Order's page is particularly damaging to the document's credibility because it says these pseudo-orders use the Malta name and symbols, claim diplomatic relationships, and sell purported diplomatic and service passports that are merely worthless documents of their organizations.
In other words, they are fakes.
What a Maltese diplomatic passport looks like.
“Prior of United States”
The Order's official directory lists three U.S. associations:
American Association – based in New York
Federal Association – in Washington
Western Association – in California
It also lists U.S. sub-priories. No “Prior of the United States of America” exists in the structure shown by the Order.
Instead, the Order's constitutional structure contains the Grand Master, Sovereign Council, Chapter General, Council Complete of State, Priors, Subpriors/Regents, etc. There is no Senate of the kind suggested by Georgescu's document.
So, the combination on the document – “Senator” + “Prior of USA” – is not an authentic set of offices within the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
EATM is real
There is a nice irony here: “senator” is real on the website of the European Asian Trade Mission (EATM), but as an internal honorary title, not as an official office. Among the documents found by DIICOT there is a “Service Passport” issued by the EATM, with the same validity term: 15 May 2025 – 14 May 2030.
The EATM is not some imaginary organization – it is real. A private institution registered in Vienna. Although it uses the words senator,” “ambassador” and “service passport,” this terminology does not turn those things into state diplomatic credentials.
But then comes Michael Lewalder. This is the most intriguing connection I found.
The official Austrian Grand Priory of the real Order of Malta has a December 2025 warning naming Michael Lewalder. It says this individual appeared as a representative of the pseudo-OSJ, calling himself “Great Chancellor” and “Executive Advisor to the Grand Master (OSJ),” and that he attempted to have documents and service passports printed for both the fake OSJ and EATM.
The authentic Order really does issue diplomatic passports – approximately 500 diplomatic passports are currently in circulation. They are restricted to the following positions:
the Grand Master;
members of the Sovereign Council;
heads and members of diplomatic missions;
Grand Priors;
presidents of national associations;
certain senior officials or people entrusted with special missions.
The passports are biometric- and ICAO-compliant since 2005. No such signs exist in Georgescu’s documents. The Order's technical documentation says its electronic passports contain 44 printed pages, an embedded RF microprocessor and biometric information. So, Georgescu's document isn't just "not quite right." It does not match the institution's actual passport system.
And the authentic Order's Romanian embassy has officially and explicitly said for Romanian press: “Georgescu is not a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, and the Order never issued such a document to him.”
Period.
Georgescu himself never explained why he needed those three fake documents, but the prosecutors promised to answer this question.
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Consequences
Romania's Article 323 of the Criminal Code (use of false documents) says that using an official or privately signed document while knowing it is false, for the purpose of producing a legal consequence, constitutes a criminal offence. This offense carries a penalty of 3 months to 3 years in prison or a substantial fine.
Article 320 criminalizes falsifying an official document by counterfeiting or altering it in a way capable of producing legal consequences. If the prosecutors demonstrate that he is liable under this provision, the basic penalty is 6 months to 3 years.
The documents mentioned above have been discovered during a larger DIICOT investigation pointing to Georgescu as the leader of a criminal group that defrauded a businessman of €1.1 million.
In an earlier article I used research to show that the declining cognitive skills of Americans have reshaped the United States – linking that to Donald Trump’s re-election. I am afraid the same is valid for Romanians. Călin Georgescu is the most popular politician in my country and could become its next president.
For some reason, people adore liars and felons.