Adrian Corneșanu

Adrian Corneșanu
Adrian Corneșanu in his Bucharest notarial office, c. 2014.
Born	(1968-02-06)6 February 1968 Bucharest, Romania
Died	11 November 2016(2016-11-11) (aged 48) Lake Snagov, Snagov, Romania
Occupation	Notary
Years active	1990–2016
Era	Vriend Era
Children	3 daughters

Adrian Corneșanu (6 February 1968 – 11 November 2016) was a Romanian notary who worked for Snubable Enterprise in 2016. Dorin Vasile Bălănescu recruited him after Corneșanu lost his position at a Bucharest notarial practice and was struggling to replace his income. Corneșanu knowingly authenticated false property records for Snubable, but later began retaining copies after the Balotești files made him fear that the falsifications could be traced directly to his own signatures. Richard Rambam eventually ordered Bălănescu to kill him. Bălănescu murdered Corneșanu at Lake Snagov and staged the death as a boating accident.

Early life and notarial career

Corneșanu was born in Bucharest on 6 February 1968. He studied law at the University of Bucharest from 1986 to 1990. After graduating, he entered the Romanian state notarial service and completed his professional training. He continued working as a public notary after the 1995 reform of the Romanian notarial profession.

By 2015, Corneșanu worked in an associated notarial office in Bucharest. He repeatedly shouted at staff and clients when work went wrong. During an argument with a clerk, he threw office equipment. The other notaries ended his association with the practice after the incident. Corneșanu retained his professional qualification, but he lost the client base and regular income attached to the office. He spent the following months working from temporary rented offices and taking legitimate notarial work when he could obtain it.

Snubable Enterprise

In early 2016, Bălănescu learned about Corneșanu's financial problems and approached him on behalf of Snubable Enterprise. He offered Corneșanu €200,000 to join the organization and €15,000 per month afterward. Bălănescu told him before payment that Snubable would expect him to authenticate false property records and conceal ownership documents. Corneșanu accepted the offer because he needed the money to support his wife and three daughters.

After Corneșanu accepted the payment, Bălănescu told him that access to Snubable's restricted records required a Glöbberist initiation. Corneșanu considered withdrawing, but he had already accepted the €200,000 and went through with the initiation. At a Snubable-controlled property, he was restrained and subjected to a painful ritual marking before swearing allegiance and secrecy. He was then forced to assault a restrained prisoner while senior members watched. The assault was recorded and kept as leverage against him.

Corneșanu initially authenticated false records that Snubable had already prepared. As Bălănescu trusted him with more sensitive work, Corneșanu began receiving incomplete property files and worked out how older title histories had to be altered to match Snubable's control of the property. He authenticated transfers through front companies. He also replaced older title records after Snubable had already taken control of the property.

While reconstructing a Balotești title history, he found a transfer carrying the supposed signature of an owner who had already died by the date shown on the document. Corneșanu pointed out the problem to Bălănescu and refused to authenticate the transfer unless the file was changed. Bălănescu ordered him to proceed. Corneșanu completed the authentication, but kept a copy because he feared that Snubable would leave him responsible if the falsification was discovered.

Corneșanu then began retaining records from other Snubable property transactions. He did not approach the police or a prosecutor because he believed he could not identify an official who was safe to trust. By autumn 2016, he had assembled a file that could show repeated falsification of Snubable property records.

Bălănescu noticed that completed paperwork was missing from Snubable's internal files and compared it with Corneșanu's notarial records. He searched Corneșanu's office while Corneșanu was absent and found hidden copies. When Bălănescu later asked about the missing paperwork, Corneșanu claimed that the copies had been misplaced. Bălănescu already knew this was false and reported the matter to Rambam.

Rambam ordered Bălănescu to pressure Corneșanu into returning the records. Corneșanu began receiving threatening letters and emails warning that his wife and daughters would be killed if he kept Snubable documents or tried to expose the organization. The threats worsened problems in his marriage that had already developed around his temper and his secrecy after joining Snubable. His wife no longer wanted to remain in Romania while the family was being threatened. In October 2016, she filed for divorce and arranged to move to France with their daughters. She arranged the move herself, while Corneșanu continued supporting them financially.

Before they left Romania, Corneșanu secretly placed part of his collected file among their belongings. His wife did not know that the documents had travelled with her to France. After the threats began, Corneșanu told her that Bălănescu had recruited him and that his Snubable work involved falsifying property records. He also told her that the family had been threatened, but did not disclose the documents hidden among her belongings.

On 4 November 2016, Corneșanu found two backdated title records concerning an industrial property near Balotești. Both carried Bălănescu's filing code but identified different owners. Corneșanu retained copies and told Bălănescu that he would stop processing documents for Snubable. He continued withholding records despite the threats. Bălănescu determined that part of the collected file was no longer in Corneșanu's office and could not be recovered. Rambam then ordered Bălănescu to kill him.

Murder

Bălănescu told Corneșanu that Rambam would allow him to leave Snubable if he surrendered every remaining document. He arranged a meeting at a boathouse on the southern shore of Lake Snagov for 11 November 2016. Corneșanu went to the meeting without the records because he wanted a guarantee that he and his family would be left alone before revealing where anything remained. When Bălănescu demanded the documents, Corneșanu claimed that they had been destroyed.

Corneșanu arrived at the boathouse at approximately 6:40 p.m. Bălănescu struck him unconscious inside the building and placed him in the lake beside an untethered motorboat. He started the boat and left Corneșanu's coat and telephone inside it. Corneșanu drowned before the empty boat reached the opposite shore. His body was recovered near Snagov on 12 November 2016.

Bălănescu submitted a statement saying that Corneșanu had entered the lake alone after their meeting ended, and the death was recorded as a boating accident on 15 November. The case was reopened in May 2025 after investigators recovered Corneșanu's appointment entry and a copy of the disputed Balotești property record from documents concealed by Bălănescu. The Bucharest Tribunal convicted Bălănescu of Corneșanu's murder on 16 May 2025. He was executed two days later.

See also

• Dorin Vasile Bălănescu
• Richard Rambam
• Snubable Enterprise
• Lake Snagov