Former minister, local businessmen plead guilty in Microsoft licenses case, describe corruption ring

Romania’s former communications minister Gabriel Sandu and local businessmen Dorin Cocos and Nicolae Dumitru pleaded guilty in the corruption trial related to the state’s acquisition of overpriced Microsoft licenses, which started on Monday, October 12. The three admitted to the influence peddling charges in court in order to get their sentenced reduced by a third. They told the court how they used their influence to get the Government’s approval for the Microsoft license purchases, in 2009, and how they got their fees from the people interested in having the contracts go through, according to Mediafax. Gabriel Sandu, Dorin Cocos, and former Piatra Neamt mayor Gheorghe Stefan, received some EUR 16 million to broker the deal, which was worth about EUR 80 million. Gheorghe Stefan claimed he was innocent, but the other two pleaded guilty and told the court how they operated. Dorin Cocos said he had been approached by Claudiu Florica, former general manager of Fujitsu Siemens Computers Romania, and by former tennis player Dinu Pescariu, who asked him to intervene to the communications minister and get him to renew some 100,000 Microsoft licenses that were about to expire. Cocos said he didn’t know minister Gabriel Sandu at that time, but that he contacted Piatra Neamt Mayor Gheorghe Stefan, who was a colleague with Sandu in PDL and told him about the deal. Cocos then set a meeting with Gheorghe Stefan, Gabriel Sandu, and Claudiu Florica to talk about the contract. They also agreed they would split the EUR 16 million fee equally among themselves, each getting EUR 4 million. Dorin Cocos said he used most of the money he got in this deal to finance PDL’s elections campaign in 2009. He also said that Claudiu Florica asked him to contribute to paying a EUR 1 million fee to UniCredit Bank CEO Rasvan Radu and Serban Tanasescu, which he did, according to Mediafax. He said he ended up with EUR 1.2 million from this deal. Former minister Gabriel Sandu told the court that he was “the worst minister in Romania’s history”. He received EUR 4 million in fees to use his influence as communications minister and help renew the Microsoft license purchase contract. Sandu said he gave away all the money to finance his party – the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) and the party’s elections campaign. Local businessman Nicolae Dumitru, who is best known as the owner of the Niro group, also admitted his guilt in court. He was involved in a previous deal for IT licenses, which had been signed by the Adrian Nastase Government. Dumitru said he paid Serban Mihailescu, the Secretary General in Nastase’s cabinet, USD 800,000 to push the deal. He also said he paid Alexandru Bittner, a well-known fixer, who was well connected to the Government, USD 3.8 million to exert his influence upon the Government and help close the contract. The contract was closed in April 2004 and had a total value of USD 54 million, of which some USD 20 million got to various members of the Government and intermediaries, according to the investigators. The National Anticorruption Directorate – DNA’s investigation also targeted former ministers Serban Mihailescu, Ecaterina Andronescu, Dan Nica, Alexandru Athanasiu, and Mihai Tanasescu.