List of Romanian politicians convicted of crimes

The following is a list of convicted Romanian politicians.

Presidents

• Nicolae Ceaușescu, convicted by a special military tribunal on charges of genocide and sabotage of the Romanian economy and sentenced to death

Prime ministers

• Constantin Dăscălescu, sentenced in 1990 to life imprisonment for manslaughter
• Adrian Năstase, convicted in 2012 for two years in prison for misuse of a publicly funded conference to raise cash for his unsuccessful campaign in 2004. ^[1] Convicted in 2014 for four years in prison for taking bribes and a three-year prison sentence for blackmail. ^[2]

Ministers

• Ion Dincă, Deputy Prime Minister (1980 – 1989), sentenced in February 1990 to life imprisonment and confiscation of all property ^[3]
• Emil Bobu, Minister of Interior (1973 – 1975), Labor Minister (1979 – 1981), was found guilty of complicity in genocide for his role in issuing orders to fire during the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and received a term of life imprisonment and confiscation of all his personal property
• Decebal Traian Remeș, Minister of Agriculture, and Rural Development (4 April 2007 – 11 October 2007), sentenced in 2012 to three years' imprisonment for bribery. ^[4]
• Victor Babiuc, Minister of Defense (1996 – 2000), was sentenced in 2013 to 2 years in prison for a land swap through which the Romanian state lost almost $1 million. ^[5]
• George Copos, Deputy Prime-Minister (December 2004 – January 2006), was sentenced in 2014 to 4 years imprisonment for tax evasion of around $1 million that was linked to the sale of several retail spaces from his company, Ana Electronics, to the Romanian National Lottery. ^[6]
• Tudor Chiuariu, Minister of Justice (5 April 2007 – 10 December 2007) and Zsolt Nagy, Minister of Communications (2004 – 2007), received in 2014 for corruption a 3½ and a four-year suspended sentence, respectively. ^[7]
• Relu Fenechiu, Minister of Transportation (2012 – 2013), was sentenced in 2014 to 5 years imprisonment. Fenechiu sold a number of old electrical transformers to Electrica Moldova at a highly inflated price of 2.8 million €. ^[8]
• Monica Iacob Ridzi, Minister of Youth and Sport (2008 – 2009), was sentenced in 2014 to five years in prison for embezzling money that was spent by the Ministry on the Youth Day festivities. ^[9]
• Gabriel Sandu, Minister of Communications (2008 – 2010), was sentenced in 2016 to 3 years imprisonment (before the appeal to 2 years imprisonment) for bribery and money laundering, and to an asset forfeiture of over €2 million in the Microsoft licensing corruption scandal. ^[10]
• Codruț Șereș, Minister of Economy and Commerce (2004 – 2006), was sentenced in 2016 to 4 years imprisonment for embezzlement of funds belonging to the Hidroelectrica company. ^[11]
• Dan Șova, minister in several Ponta cabinets, was sentenced in 2018 to 3 years imprisonment and €100,000 forfeiture for influence peddling. ^[12]
• Elena Udrea, Minister of Regional Development and Tourism (2009 – 2012), was sentenced in 2018 to 6 years imprisonment for bribery and abuse of power in the "Bute Gala" case. ^[13]

Senators

• Vasile Duță, sentenced in 2010 to 5 years imprisonment for influence peddling ^[14]
• Cătălin Voicu, sentenced in 2012 to 7 years imprisonment for bribery ^[15]
• Dan Voiculescu, sentenced in 2014 to 10 years in prison for using his political influence in the privatization of the Food Research Institute which had an estimated value of €7.7 million, but was instead bought by his company, Grivco at an undervalued price of €100,000 ^[16] According to the prosecutors, the damages brought to the Romanian state amounted to over €60 million. ^[16]
• Constantin Nicolescu, convicted in 2015 for using false documents to contract financing of €900,000 from European funds that should have been used to revamp four schools. Nicolescu was also convicted for having taken a €60,000 bribe from businessman Cornel Penescu and sentenced to 7 years in prison. ^{[17] [18]} Also sentenced in 2017 to 8 years in prison for bribery, sentence subject to appeal. ^[19]
• Gergely Olosz  [ ro ], sentenced in 2016 to 3 years imprisonment for influence-peddling ^[20]

Deputies

• Liviu Dragnea, President of the Chamber of Deputies starting December 2016 and former Minister of Administration and Regional Development (2012-2015), convicted in a case involving electoral fraud, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence in April 2016. Dragnea was later sentenced to 3½ years in prison, in May 2019 after being found guilty of corruption.

Notes

1. Andrei Aştefănesei (20 June 2012), "Năstase, în faţa verdictului final: fostul premier al României a fost condamnat definitiv la doi ani de închisoare cu executare", Adevărul, retrieved 4 October 2014
2. Virgil Burlă; Ionel Stoica (6 January 2014), "DOSARUL "ZAMBACCIAN". Adrian Năstase, condamnat la 4 ani de închisoare cu executare: "Pedeapsa este îngrozitoare şi injustă!" Fostul premier a fost încarcerat la Rahova", Evenimentul zilei, retrieved 4 October 2014
3. "Nurnbergul românesc: "Am fost un dobitoc!"" (in Romanian). jurnalul.ro. February 3, 2010. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
4. Catalin Lupasteanu -Mediafax (25 February 2013). "Remeş, primul ministru de Finanţe din istoria României condamnat la închisoare". Ziarul financiar. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
5. Victor Cozmei (20 May 2013). "Sentinta definitiva: Gigi Becali, Victor Babiuc si Dumitru Cioflina, condamnati la cate doi ani de inchisoare in dosarul schimbului de terenuri cu MApN". Hotnews. Bucharest.
6. Popescu, Irina (25 August 2014). "Romanian businessman Copos gets another final jail conviction, no parole, in tax evasion case - Romania Insider". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
7. Virgil Burlă; Ionel Stoica; Violeta Fotache (24 January 2014). ""POŞTA ROMÂNĂ". Tudor Chiuariu: 3 ani şi jumătate cu suspendare, Zsolt Nagy: 4 ani cu suspendare! Curtea Supremă: preşedintele Comisiei Juridice din Senat este corupt! Predoiu: Să demisioneze!". Evenimentul zilei. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
8. Victor Cozmei (12 July 2013). "Relu Fenechiu a fost condamnat la 5 ani de închisoare cu executare!". hotnews .
9. "Monica Iacob Ridzi, condamnată la cinci ani de închisoare CU EXECUTARE". Mediafax . 27 January 2014.
10. "Condamnări definitive în Dosarul "Microsoft". Dumitru Nicolae (Niro) şi Dorin Cocoş, condamnaţi la câte 2 ani şi 4 luni închisoare, Gabriel Sandu - 3 ani, Gheorghe Ştefan - 6 ani. Gheorghe Ştefan: "Mă consider vinovat"". Mediafax (in Romanian). 3 October 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
11. "Codruț Șereș, condamnat definitiv la 4 ani de închisoare cu executare în dosarul Hidroelectrica". Agerpres (in Romanian). 29 February 2016.
12. "Former Romanian senator and minister sentenced to three years in jail for bribery". Romania-Insider.com. 20 June 2018. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
13. (in Romanian) "Elena Udrea a fost condamnată la 6 ani de închisoare" ("Elena Udrea Sentenced to Six Years in Prison"), Digi24, 5 June 2018; accessed 12 June 2018
14. "Dosar de trafic de influenta - Vasile Duta". hotnews .
15. Victor Cozmei (22 April 2012). "Catalin Voicu, condamnat definitiv la 7 ani de inchisoare cu executare". hotnews .
16. "Romanian mogul gets 10 years in prison for fraud" . Retrieved 10 July 2020.
17. "Cine este Zeus, personajul comun din dosarele Nicolescu si Nastase" . Retrieved 1 February 2017.
18. Insider, Romania (6 February 2015). "Romanian politician gets 7 years in jail for corruption - Romania Insider". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
19. "CAB: Constantin Nicolescu, fost președinte al CJ Argeș, condamnat la 8 ani de închisoare". Agerpres (in Romanian). 5 May 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
20. "Fostul preşedinte ANRE, Olosz Gergely, a fost condamnat la trei ani de închisoare". Mediafax (in Romanian). 3 March 2016.