Former Romanian President’s daughter, ex-tourism minister to stand trial over illegal presidential campaign financing

Ioana Basescu, the elder daughter of former Romanian President Traian Basescu, and former tourism minister Elena Udrea were sent to court under judicial control over the illegal financing of the 2009 presidential campaign. Journalist Dan Andronic will also stand trial in the same case. Ioana Basescu is charged with instigation to embezzlement and instigation to money laundering; Elena Udrea is investigated for instigation to bribery and money laundering, while Dan Andronic is charged with false testimony and favoring the offender. Several other people will stand trial in this case, namely Gheorghe Nastasia – Secretary General of the Ministry of Tourism at the time, Victor Tarhon – then president of Tulcea County Council, and Ioan Silviu Wagner – former general manager of Oil Terminal. In the indictment, the prosecutors said that several amounts of money were collected for the 2009 presidential campaign, money that was coming from corruption, embezzlement, and tax evasion. The money was then used to pay for services during the electoral campaign, according to a statement from the National Anticorruption Department (DNA). Elena Udrea was the one that was connecting the people who got the money illegally with those who were providing the services, according to the prosecutors. At that time, Udrea was running an informal campaign staff of one of the candidates, coordinating both the service purchases and those who acted as intermediaries for the payments made. This is not the first time when Udrea, who was known as the protégé of former President Basescu, has problems with the law. In late-March this year, she was sentenced to six years in jail, no parole, for bribery and abuse of office in a case related to the illegal financing by the Tourism Ministry of a boxing gala in 2011. She was even arrested in February 2015 in a corruption case related to overpriced IT license purchases, also known as the “Microsoft file”. She spent more than two months in prison. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com