Former Romanian tax agency head sentenced to six years in prison for influence peddling

A former president of Romania’s National Fiscal Administration Agency – ANAF, Sorin Blejnar, was sentenced to six years in prison for influence peddling. The decision is not final, local Hotnews.ro reported. The magistrates of the Bucharest Court have maintained the judicial control measure on Blejnar and the distraint on his assets for the recovery of RON 12.5 million (EUR 2.68 million). The National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) sent Blejnar to court in 2016 for influence peddling. The case is related to a public procurement procedure carried out by ANAF in 2011, in which Blejnar apparently agreed with a private investor to get 20% of the value of a contract that ANAF was going to award. To get the money, the former ANAF head had to make sure the investor’s company would get the respective contract. Blejnar thus received RON 12.5 million (EUR 2.68 million) from this deal. In 2016, Blejnar was sentenced to five years in jail for supporting an organized crime group that damaged the state budget by some EUR 56 million by not paying taxes on large fuel transactions. That sentence is not final either. editor@romania-insider.com