Former minister of Communications called by the DNA to testify

Newsroom 30/01/2015 | 18:00

Former Minister of Communications Gabriel Sandu, currently on house arrest due to his being investigated in the Microsoft file, was called this week to testify at the National Anti-corruption Office (DNA), according to legal sources. 

Sandu told prosecutors that he found out in the first part of 2009 that for financing the Democrat Liberal Party  (PDL)and its electoral campaign, certain mechanisms were created to collect funds from companies registered in other countries. These operations were handled by well-prepared trusted people, who “represent the interests of some corporations,” according to Mediafax.

“By the end of 2009, I found out and understood exactly what these mechanisms were. They are real, efficient and well-planned, and the source of the funds are, almost exclusively, public funds obtained via illegal methods,” Sandu told prosecutors.

“Personally, but depending on the electoral activities and their complexity, I always executed the indications that were transmitted to me from the National Liberal Party, and the following people told me where the money should go: Emil Boc, prime-minister, Vasile Blaga, minister and head of the electoral campaign,  Adriean Videanu, Radu Berceanu, Roberta Anastase, but also Alin Albu, treasurer and administrator of PDL, together with its staff,” said Sandu in front of the prosecutors.

Sandu said that, if he was to keep his chair as minister of communications, he was expected to support the electoral campaigns and all the expenses and obligations to this end were made under pressure from Emil Boc, Elena Udrea, Vasile Blaga, Adriean Videanu, Radu Berceanu, Roberta Anastase, Alin Albu and Gheorghe Ştefan.

“Due to the pressures put on me to cover immediately the financial obligations for the electoral campaign in 2009 (…) I met separately with Gheorghe Ştefan and Dorin Cocos,” he said.

Sandu said they offered him an option to obtain money for the campaign and promised they would temporary guarantee from their own funds his (Sandu’s) contribution to the two electoral campaigns in 2009.

“I remember that each of them offered me financial support of approximately EUR 2 million. In exchange, they asked me to obtain the necessary signatures to pass the government decision 460/2009 regarding the approval of the acquisition of the Microsoft licenses necessary between 2009-2012, as well as to obtain the budgets needed for the contract to move forward,” said Sandu.

According to Sandu, the sum was split into three parts. The first parts were the pending debts, including some loans or expenses for the 2008 campaign and the parliamentary campaign. The second part of teh sum would be used for the euro-parliamentary elections in May-June 2009, while the third part of the sum was used for the presidential campaign in 2009,”perhaps the most expensive one of all.”

Sandu said that during his term as minister of communications, he financed the Democrat Liberal Party (PDL) with approximately EUR 300,000 per month. He said he handed in this money directly to his boss, Emil Boc, who was at that time prime-minister of Romania.

Boc denied having received this money.

In the Microsoft file, businessmen Dorin Cocoş and Nicolae Dumitru as well as the Piatra Neamt mayor Gheorghe Ştefan are accused with money laundering and peddling while Sandu, who was minister of Communications between December 2008- September 2010, is accused of taking a bribe and money laundering.

The Court ruled their arrest on October 29, and later prolonged the arrest warrants. According to the prosecutors, Cocos asked for EUR 17.5 million for him, Gheorghe Ştefan and Gabriel Sandu in order to intervene in the acquisition of the right to use the Microsoft licenses. Of this sum, EUR 15.7 million reached the accounts of companies directly or indirectly controlled by the accused.

Otilia Haraga

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