Dragos Basescu, the nephew of former Romanian president Traian Basescu, was sentenced to three years in prison for influence peddling. The decision is final, and he was imprisoned at the Poarta Alba penitentiary.

One year ago, the Bucharest Court ruled a first sentence of two years and six months in prison. However, the Court of Appeal admitted on Monday, February 5, the appeal of the National Anticorruption Department (DNA), and ruled a sentence of three years.

DNA prosecutors sent Dragos Basescu to court in October 2015, on influence peddling charges. Local businessman Ciprian Nistor also stood trial in this case, for complicity to influence peddling. However, Nistor admitted to the facts in 2016 and, in early-May that year, he was sentenced to three years in prison, no parole. He challenged the decision to the Bucharest Court of Appeal, which in September 2016 ruled the final sentence of three years in prison.

DNA prosecutors said Dragos Basescu, together with Ciprian Nistor, asked EUR 1 million from a local businessman called Sandu Staicu in the spring of 2014, promising that he would use his influence at the Directorate for Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) to help solve a case in his favor. When Staicu said that he didn’t have that kind of money, Basescu suggested that he could conclude a fictitious consultancy contract with an international company, and pay the EUR 1 million in installments, over a period of two years.

Dragos Basescu is the son of Mircea Basescu, the former President’s brother, who was also sentenced to four years in prison for influence peddling, in another case. He was released conditionally last fall.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com