Romanian politician charged with false testimony against local businessman

Romanian politician Viorel Hrebenciuc, a former leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), eas indicted earlier this week for false testimony against local investor Ioan Niculae, one of Romania's richest. in April last year, Niculae was sentenced to two and a half years in prison no parole in a corruption case in which Hrebenciuc was one of the key witnesses. According to judicial sources cited by local Mediafax, Ioan Niculae said that Hrebenciuc had pressured him to finance Mircea Geoana’s presidential campaign in 2009. Niculae got two and half years in prison for illegally financing the Geoana's campaign. He claims that Hrebenciuc was the one who insisted that he contributed to Geoana's campaign, but the politician then lied about this in his testimony in front of the judges. Neither Viorel Hrebenciuc nor Mircea Geoana have been indicted in the corruption case. However, social democrat leader Gheorghe Bunea Stancu, the former president of the Braila County Council, got a three-year sentence for arranging the financing. Niculae didn’t pay the money directly to the Social Democratic Party (PSD) but agreed to pay some of the campaign’s suppliers. In exchange, Niculae requested that, in case PSD won the elections, the party would name people that supported his interest at the top of the Economy Ministry. He also asked for favorable appointments in the management of the gas transporter Transgaz and the gas producer Romgaz. Mircea Geoana lost the 2009 presidential elections to Traian Basescu. Viorel Hrebenciuc is currently standing trial for his involvement in an illegal retrocession of 43,000 hectares of woodland. Prosecutors from the Anticorruption Department DNA sent him to trial in January 2015 for setting up an organized crime group, influence peddling, and money laundering. His son Andrei Hrebenciuc was also indicted in this case. Former Romanian deputy arrested in illegal restitutions case. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (Photo source: Wikipedia)