Electoral campaign donations via PayPal bring penalties for former Romanian presidential candidate

The Romanian authorities have trouble processing and acknowledging some of the modern money transfer tools, such as the worldwide known PayPal, or so the former electoral candidate Monica Macovei says. Member of the European Parliament Macovei, who run in the 2014 presidential campaign in Romania, now has to hand over some RON 300,000 – or some EUR 68,000 – the Permanent Electoral Authority has decided. Much of the money came from small donations, via PayPal. Macovei says she has done what none of the other politicians have: “I had small donations from many people, not big donations, not dirty money brought in by bag. Everything I cashed in and spent was legal and transparent,” she explained. Some of her supporters sent small donations via the PayPal system, sending money from their own accounts into Macovei’s PayPal account. She could only use these money in her campaign after she transferred the online funds to her campaign bank account, and the transfer took a while. However, says Macovei, the Authority disregarded the PayPal system and decided to confiscate amounts which she transparently received and spent. “We’ve respected the law completely. All donations and expenses during the campaign were made via a financial representative, as required by law. On top of this, this representative declared the amounts received before the campaign started […]. So we even did more than what the law asked, to give an example of transparency,” according to Modica Macovei’s press release. She will go to court against the Electoral Authority’s decision. The amount to be confiscated from Macovei is about half of the sum the Authority decided to confiscate following the presidential elections in 2014. Macovei received some EUR 147,000 for her electoral campaign, and spent most of them, according to a recent report from the Authority. It was one of the lowest financings in the campaign. For comparison, the Popular Movement Party (PMP), who supported her female opponent Elena Udrea – currently in jail – received double than Macovei – some EUR 286,000. But the PMP spent much more than what it received and resulted in a loss of some EUR 124,000. Presidential winner Klaus Iohannis, supported by the Christian – Liberal Alliance, had a budget of EUR 1.1 million, and resulted in a loss of half a million euros. The full results of the electoral campaign financing in early 2015 are here. PayPal is one of the world’s largest international payment companies. It was founded in 1998 in California, and acquired by eBay in 2002. It currently has over 143 million active accounts in 203 countries and regions across the world. It offers individuals and businesses electronic payment solutions. PayPal does promote its services for various donations, including for electoral campaigns.