Romanian politician gets 7 years in jail for corruption

The Bucharest Court of Appeal on Thursday, February 5, sentenced the former president of the Arges County Council Constantin Nicolescu to 7 years and 8 months in prison in the “Zeus I: European funds for schools” case, on corruption charges. The Court also decided that Nicolescu and the others sentenced in the same file, including businessmen and mayors, would have to pay EUR 880,000 to the Finance Ministry, reports local Hotnews.ro. Nicolescu will serve time for having taken a EUR 60,000 bribe from businessman Cornel Penescu and having stolen EUR 900,000 in European funds that should have been used to revamp four schools. Revamping work was carried out by a company called Zeus SA. The Court sentenced both Cornel Penescu and Gheorghe Dobre, associate and administrator of Zeus, to 4 years in jail each. editor@romania-insider.com