Romanian prosecutors ask for jail sentences in the Microsoft case

The High Court of Cassation and Justice has completed the judicial investigation in the Microsoft corruption file. The court will give the sentence at a term that hasn’t been set yet. The anticorruption prosecutors have asked for prison sentences for the defendants Gheorghe Stefan, Dorin Cocos, Gabriel Sandu, and Nicolae Dumitru, as well as the special confiscation of over EUR 16 million. This represents the amount which the defendants illegally obtained from the Microsoft licenses contracts, according to the prosecutors, reports local Profit.ro. Local businessmen Dorin Cocos, Nicolae Dumitru and former Piatra Neamt mayor Gheorghe Stefan have been charged with influence peddling and money laundering in the sale of Microsoft licenses to the state, whereas former communications minister Gabriel Sandu has been charged with bribery and money laundering. According to prosecutors, Dorin Cocos asked EUR 17.5 million from businessmen Claudiu Florica and Dinu Pescariu to make sure that their companies’ contracts to sell overpriced Microsoft licenses to the state would be renewed, in 2009. The defendants received some EUR 15.7 million through offshore firms. editor@romania-insider.com