Former Bucharest mayor’s advisor gets four-year jail sentence for bribery

Solomon Wigler, former Bucharest mayor Sorin Oprescu’s advisor, was sentenced to four years in jail, no parole, for taking a EUR 200,000 bribe to help a private firm with some building permits. Bucharest’s Court of Appeal maintained a previous decision of the Bucharest Court in Wigler’s corruption case. The final sentence was announced on Thursday, February 4. The Court of Appeal also ruled that the authorities should confiscate EUR 154,000 of Wigler’s personal fortune, and maintained the distraint on several of his assets. Solomon Wigler was arrested in June 2015 after he was caught in the act while receiving a EUR 25,000 bribe in an envelope, in his personal car. During the investigation, he admitted his guilt and confessed to receiving EUR 204,000 from the Romanian representative of a German firm that had been buying land and developing stores for German retailer Kaufland, according to Hotnews.ro. Wigler said that he had received the EUR 204,000 in several tranches between 2012 and 2015. He also explained that he was only an intermediary, passing the money forward to members of the Bucharest General City Council, who voted several building permits for the German developer. Bucharest’s mayor Sorin Oprescu is also under investigation for bribery. The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) arrested him in September 2015. At the end of October 2015, Oprescu was placed under house arrest. editor@romania-insider.com