The High Court of Cassation and Justice ruled on Friday, May 26, a prison sentence of four years for former energy minister Constantin Nita for influence peddling.

Nita was an energy minister in the cabinet of Victor Ponta and a minister for SMEs and the Business Environment in the cabinet of Emil Boc.

Nita stood trial in a case in which he was accused of taking a bribe from local investor Tiberiu Urdareanu. The businessman denounced the former minister in November last year.

The decision is not final, however, and can be appealed, reports local Agerpres. The Court also ordered the confiscation of RON 303,000 (over EUR 66,000) from Constantin Nita.

Nita helped Tiberiu Urdareanu get a contract with the Iasi City Hall, mediating a meeting between the investor and the city’s former mayor Gheorghe Nichita in return for a commission of 5% of the contract’s value, according to the prosecutors. The money got to Nita in two ways: in cash and through a fictitious consultancy contract that was to be signed by a trusted person from the former energy minister’s entourage.

Thus, in July 2013, Constantin Nita received EUR 30,000 from the businessman, in a Lebanese restaurant in Bucharest. Then, based on the fictitious consultancy contract, Nita got another RON 303,000 (over EUR 66,000). He used most of the money to finance various expenses of his party’s county organization.

Prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) sent the former minister to court last year, on charges of influence peddling.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com