Former Romanian presidential candidate Ninel Potarca was arrested on Thursday evening (December 19) for allegedly offering a bribe.

According to judicial sources quoted by local news agency Mediafax, Potarca was detained for 24 hours after prosecutors from Craiova Court of Appeal organized a bust. He is accused of bribery, after trying to give money to a judicial liquidator.

On Friday (December 20), Ninel Potarca was to be presented to the court with a preventive arrest proposal.

In early July, Potarca was arrested in a tax evasion case, after allegedly causing a damage of RON 4.4 million (or some EUR 1 million), but the Craiova Court of Appeal later decided to release him.

Ninel Potarca is suspected to have recorded in one of his companies’ accounts fiscal invoices which showed fictitious transactions with scrap metal, the damage amounting to around RON 4.4 million.

The charges are similar to those in other cases in which Potarca was investigated in recent years.

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