Romanian court orders jail time for acting minister Relu Fenechiu, PM takes interim helm of Transport Ministry

Romanian Transport Minister Relu Fenechiu (in picture) was sentenced to five years in prison with execution in a file which involved the sale of old transformers and switches via his companies to the Electricity Maintenance Subsidiary Moldova, but at high prices. The court decision can be further appealed, but Fenechiu resigned from his ministerial position. He will be replaced by Prime Minister Victor Ponta, as interim, until a new Transport Minister is appointed. Fenechiu will however not resign from his seat as Member of the Parliament. It is the first time when an acting minister is sentenced to jail in Romania. Fenechiu's brother, who is his associate in several firms, was also sentenced to the same period in jail. Ioan Turbatu, general manager of Electricity Maintenance Subsidiary Moldova between 2002 and 2004, and Ion Mărghidan general manager of the same company between 2004 and 2005, each got six years in jail. The biggest jail time went to Petru Andronache, commercial director of the Electricity Maintenance Subsidiary Moldova. All the sentences were given for continued work abuse. Fenechiu recently told Romanian media he did not take the trial seriously, as he knew he was innocent. So far, the court rejected all the exceptions raised by Fenechiu's lawyers at the court meeting on Thursday, July 4, as well as the proofs they provided. In this file, Minister Fenechiu is being trialed together with his brother, Lucian Fenechiu, shareholder and administrator at their joint firms, together with Mihai Bogdan Damian, shareholder and administrator of SC Euro Plus SRL Iaşi and SC Fene Grup SA, for abuse of power and complicity to abuse of power against public interest. Ioan Turbatu, general manager of Electricity Maintenance Subsidiary Moldova between 2002 and 2004 was also sent to court, as well as Ion Mărghidan, director of the same company between 2004 and 2005, together with Petru Andronache, commercial director of the company between 2002 and 2005, all of abuse of power against public interest. According to prosecutors, the public managers signed public acquisition contracts with firms belonging to the Fenechiu brothers without respecting the law, thus favoring these firms, from which they bought transformers made in the 70s- 80s, but with price tags of new transformers. Prosecutors showed that most of these products ended up in the stock of the state company as old products, being used without any economic reasoning. The value of these contracts – thus the value of the damage - amounted to some EUR 1.7 million. The state company is also part of the trial, asking for these money back from the former managers and from the Fenechiu brothers. Fenechiu's lawyer argued that the DNA file does not include evidence showing there was an understanding between the Minister and the state company manager, and Fenechiu said he could not have done anything with people he did not know. Relu Fenechiu, a vice-president in the National Liberal Party PNL, has been the Minister of Transport since December 2012, in the cabinet led by Social Democrat leader Victor Ponta.