Jailed former Romanian minister, arrested in another corruption case

Former Romanian transport minister Relu Fenechiu, who is currently serving a 5-year jail sentence for corrupting the director of a state-owned company more than 10 years ago, has been charged with influence peddling in a case related to software purchases by the Justice Ministry and a state-owned pharmaceutical company.

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The Prahova Court approved a 30-day preventive arrest warrant on Fenechiu’s name as requested by the anticorruption prosecutors. The court’s decision can be challenged.

Relu Fenechiu allegedly asked a local software company to pay him 15% of the value of two contracts that the respective firm wanted to get from the Justice Ministry and a state-owned pharmaceutical company. The former minister apparently helped the firm get the two contracts, which were worth EUR 5.1 million, of which Fenechiu apparently received EUR 620,000, through two firms that he controlled, the prosecutors found.

This happened between 2012 and 2014 when Fenechiu was a member of the Parliament and held the transport minister seat in Victor Ponta’s USL Government. He resigned from both positions in July 2013 when the court sentenced him to prison in another corruption case. The High Court ruled a final 5-year jail sentence against Fenechiu in January 2014. His brother was also jailed in the same case.

A former IT director in the Justice Ministry, Ion Krech, has also been arrested in the software contracts case. The prosecutors charged Krech with bribery. He allegedly received EUR 239,000 from the same software company, via an intermediary, to help it win the EUR 3.3 million contract awarded by the Justice Ministry. Krech made the tender requirements so that the respective firm would be favored in the public tender for the contract, according to the prosecutors. He was officially charged with bribery earlier this month

Romania Insider

28 June 2016