The biggest thief of land in that region (and in most of the rest of Romania) is the Romanian state itself. Land that was confiscated under communist rule is only given back or compensated for after many years of lawsuits against the state (in some cases decades), which drags her heels in an attempt to outlive the bringers of these suits.

The state has enormous resources compared to the people involved and so they tend to either lose or fail to collect if and when there finally is a judgment. During my time there I learned of two families in this situation and it is not as if I know a whole lot of Romanians.

Quite possibly the land-grab under the communists is yet another (direct or indirect) factor in driving land-scarcity for extremely poor, small-time farmers like this. Unfortunately they are so poor that if that's the case they are not going to be able to get the state to give back any land. That's mostly reserved to those that are wealthy enough to see that whole process through and then wealthy enough to force the state to pay up or give back their possession.

Quite a few people simply die waiting for a resolution of these cases.