Romanian prosecutors hold former minister Elena Udrea on influence peddling

Romanian anticorruption prosecutors held Elena Udrea, former tourism minister and former advisor to President Traian Basescu, on Tuesday night. They indicted Udrea for three counts of influence peddling and one charge of money laundering related to the Microsoft IT licenses case, in which Udrea’s former husband Dorin Cocos was arrested in November 2014. Elena Udrea went to the National Anticorruption Directorate’s headquarters on Tuesday, just before 12:00. The prosecutors called her for questioning in the Microsoft case. She also had to answer the prosecutor’s questions on a different case, related to a boxing gala she financed as tourism minister in 2011. Prosecutors decided that the financing of the gala, which featured Romanian boxing champion Lucian Bute, was illegal. On Monday, the Chamber of Deputies approved DNA’s requests to arrest and indict Elena Udrea in the two cases. She thus lost the immunity she had as a member of the Parliament, although she is still a member of the Chamber of Deputies. The prosecutors decided to hold her for 24 hours and filed a request to Romania’s High Court to approve Udrea’s preventive arrest for 30 days. Former Romanian minister Elena Udrea, subpoenaed in Microsoft IT licenses case Former Romanian ministers, on the ropes for illegal financing of boxing gala editor@romania-insider.com