Former Romanian football bosses, sentenced to prison for bribing judge

Romanian investor Cristian Borcea, a former shareholder of the Dinamo Bucharest football club, and football agents Ioan Becali and Victor Becali were sentenced to prison for bribing a judge. The bribed judge, Geanina Terceanu, may also spend time in jail if the sentences become final. The Becali brothers and Borcea are accused of giving an EUR 195,000 bribe to judge Terceanu to acquit them and other local football bosses in a tax evasion case related to illegal player transfers, a couple of years ago. The judge actually acquitted them but another court overrulled the sentence and sent Becali and the others to jail. Meanwhile, most of the defendants in the illegal player transfers case have already got out of jail, on parole, after executing fractions of their sentences. Most of them also benefitted from reductions of their sentences by writing several books and doing other activities while incarcerated. The Becali brothers and Cristi Borcea may now return behind bars if the new sentence against them remains final. The Bucharest Court of Appeal ruled a three-year sentence for Ioan Becali for giving bribes, to which it added the other sentences the football agent received for other offences in the illegal player transfer case. Thus, the Court ruled a total prison term of seven years and four months for Ioan Becali, reports local News.ro. However, Becali will spend less time in jail, as he already served time in the “Transfers Case.” Victor Becali also got a three-year prison sentence for bribing judge Terceanu. However, similar to Ioan Becali’s case, the court also added to this sentence the other sentences Victor Becali got in the illegal player transfer case, and ruled that he will spend five years and eight months in prison. Cristian Borcea was sentenced to three years and six months. However, after merging the convictions, the Court ruled a total prison sentence of seven years and ten months. Meanwhile, Geanina Terceanu, who was a judge at the Bucharest Court, got a prison sentence of five years and six months in jail, for taking bribes. Moreover, the EUR 195,000 she received as a bribe will also be confiscated. Two lawyers also got prison sentences in this case, for false testimony. However, the Court’s decisions are not final. According to prosecutors, in February 2009, Geanina Terceanu was assigned to judge the case in which Ioan Becali, Victor Becali and Cristian Borcea were indicted for fraud and tax evasion. The case focused on several player transfers made by Romanian teams to clubs abroad, in which the local clubs declared only fractions of the real transfer prices. The damage to the state budget was some USD 1.5 million, but the clubs themselves also lost money, because most of the transfer money went directly to the club owners and the football agents (some USD 10 million). In April 2012, Terceanu acquitted all defendants, arguing that the deed had not existed. Prosecutors said that the judge received a bribe of EUR 195,000 from the three defendants to give this favourable ruling.