Romania’s former President Traian Basescu is investigated for alleged money laundering in a criminal case managed by the General Prosecutor’s Office, according to judicial sources cited by local Mediafax. Basescu himself confirmed the information in a Facebook post.

The investigation targets a transaction dating back from 2000, between Basescu and Romanian businessman Costel Casuneanu, one of the so-called "asphalt kings" who got many infrastructure contracts paid from public funds while Basescu and his former party were in power. In 2000, four years before Basescu was elected President, he allegedly purchased a land plot in northern Bucharest for a price below the market value and then sold it to Casuneanu’s sister-in-law at market price. He was Bucharest's mayor at that time.

The transaction was investigated before, but the case was closed in 2012. It was reopened last year, however, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office.

In a Facebook post, the former President said that the Prosecutor’s Office had informed him that he was suspected of repeated money laundering in a case that investigates the acquisition of a land and a house in 2000 and 2002 respectively. He also said he would appear before the prosecutor who is handling the case as soon as he is subpoenaed.

Traian Basescu is currently trying to relaunch his political career as the president of the Popular Movement Party (PMP), after he kept a low profile for about a year after finishing his second presidential mandate, in December 2014. He was President of Romania for 10 years, between December 2004 and December 2014.

He has been rumored to prepare a candidacy for Bucharest mayor in the local elections on June 5, but no official announcement has been made. Basescu was Bucharest's mayor from 2000 until late 2004.

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