The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) has prosecuted Gheorghe Ciuhandu, the former mayor of Timisoara, for illegally financing the city’s football team with over EUR 6.1 million from the local budget. Other two local officials are prosecuted in the same case.

Between 2008 and 2011, Ciuhandu allegedly violated the norms on public sponsorships, paying over EUR 2 million annually to the Politehnica Timisoara football club, which was a privately owned business. According to the prosecutors, this financing didn’t serve the community’s interests but those of the football club’s stakeholders.

To recover the damage, prosecutors decided to seize a real estate property belonging to Ciuhandu and the bank accounts of one of the two local officials.

editor@romania-insider.com