The Bucharest Court of Appeal sentenced former Piatra Neamt mayor Gheorghe Stefan to three years in prison, no parole, for the illegal funding of the former Liberal Democratic Party (PDL).

The sentence is similar to the one ruled by the Bucharest court in January this year.

The Court also ordered the confiscation of EUR 165,000 from Gheorghe Stefan, while maintaining the seizure up to the amount of EUR 235,000, reports local Agerpres.

The former mayor is currently in prison, serving another sentence ruled in the Microsoft licenses case. He received a final sentence in this case in October 2016.

Prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Department (DNA) said that, in 2009, PDL secretary general Vasile Blaga and PDL vice president Gheorghe Stefan reached a deal to get funds for the party. Based on the deal, Stefan helped a person get to the management of a state-owned energy company. In exchange, that person had to contribute to the party’s funding by granting public contracts to a private firm that would then contribute to PDL’s electoral campaign.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com