Romania's justice system has claimed another high profile corruption scalp, with the conviction of former agriculture minister Ioan Avram Mureşan for embezzling money recently upheld by the Supreme Court. He now faces seven years in jail. The Romanian Supreme Court also upheld convictions of two others indicted in the same case.

Co-defendants Ioan Enea Truţă, former Agriculture Ministry adviser and Secretary General, and Silvia Căpitanu, formerly in charge of European funds at the Agriculture Ministry, were also convicted for stealing public funds, but all were acquitted of bribery charges.

As well as prison time, the court ordered the defendants to pay nearly USD 3 million in damages.

The convictions centered around the misappropriation of a loan from the US International Development Fund to Romania's Ministry of Agriculture. The loan valued just over 29.5 billion old lei (ROL) or around EUR 660,000.

Mureşan, Truţă and Căpitanu misused the loan in 1999 and 2000, causing damages to the Agriculture Ministry. Muresan was also accused of having intermediated bribery between another Agriculture Minister, Decebal Traian Remeș, and a Romanian businessman in 2007. Prosecutors started the first case against Muresan in 2003, and the first conviction came in 2011.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com