Romania’s richest man according to Forbes magazine as of March 2014, Ioan Niculae, the billionaire head of agro-industrial conglomerate InterAgro, was sentenced on Thursday to two years and six months in prison, for his involving in the illegal financing of the 2009 presidential campaign.
According to media reports, the Court of Appeal sentenced Romania’s richest businessman to 2 ½ years in prison for paying a bribe to a party official in exchange for influence in the government.
The court sentenced Ioan Niculae worth an estimated EUR 1.2 billion for paying a bribe of some EUR 150,000 in 2009 to a member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), then in opposition, ahead of presidential elections in exchange for having influence in the government.
The former leader of PSD Braila, Gheorghe Bunea Stancu, was sentenced to three years. Niculae, owner of InterAgro, energy and finance business and soccer club Astra Giurgiu, supported Mircea Geoana in the 2009 presidential race, which the latter lost. Two others, Viorel Barac and Gheorghe Teodorescu respectively, were also handed 2 ½ year sentences. The court ordered Niculae pay back the sum of the bribe, the same decision being taken also in the case of Gheorghe Bunea Stancu, Viorel Barac and Gheorghe Teodorescu.
Staff