Former Romanian railways company manager sentenced to 10 years in jail for abuse of office

Bucharest’s District 1 Court sentenced Mihai Necolaiciuc, a former director of the Romanian Railways Company (CFR), to 10 years in prison for abuse of office. His decisions have damaged the company with almost EUR 57 million, according to the prosecutors. The sentence is not final, however, and can be appealed. Mihai Necolaiciuc was director of the CFR from 2000 until 2004. He became famous for the overpriced and often unnecessary acquisitions he approved for the company. Necolaiciuc got 10 years in jail for abuse of office against public interest and 7 years for using grants and loans for purposes other than those for which they were contracted. He is already serving time after he was convicted to 4 years and 6 months in jail in October 2014, in another case. The Court decided to merge the two sentences and Necolaiciuc will stay 10 years in jail, reports local Mediafax. The Court gave the sentence in a case in which Mihai Necolaiciuc, several former managers of CFR SA and managers of companies were accused of defrauding the company. The defendants were initially charged in three separate cases, which were then merged in the trial against Necolaiciuc. In one of these cases, the former general manager of CFR was sent to trial in 2008 for his alleged involvement in a fraud of EUR 18 million. Later the same year, he was also investigated in a case in which the damage amounted to EUR 35.5 million. In the third case, the damages amounted to EUR 2.9 million. Former head of Romanian Railways Company Mihai Necolaiciuc extradited from US Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com