Former Piatra Neamt mayor gets new three-year prison sentence

Gheorghe Stefan, the former mayor of the city of Piatra Neamt, was sentenced on Friday by the Bucharest Court to three years in prison, after he pleaded guilty for the illegal funding of the former Liberal Democratic Party (PDL). The former mayor is currently in prison, serving another sentence in the Microsoft case. He received a final sentence in this case in October 2016. According to the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), Vasile Blaga, who was then secretary general of PDL, and the PDL vice president Gheorghe Stefan had a deal in 2009 to get money to fund the party. Based on the deal, Gheorghe 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. editor@romania-insider.com