Romania’s anticorruption prosecutors searched 14 locations in Bucharest and Ploiesti, on Tuesday morning, including the headquarters of a company owned by Prime Minister Victor Ponta’s sister and brother-in-law, according to Mediafax newswire.

The prosecutors suspect that several firms, including one controlled by Alexandra and Iulian Hertanu, have embezzled 54% of the sums in an EU funded project. The embezzled sums are estimated at some EUR 1.75 million. The judicial authorities also investigate the respective firms for tax evasion worth some EUR 563,000, according to sources quoted by Mediafax.

The same sources said that Iulian Hertanu, Ponta’s brother-in-law, will be taken in for questioning in this case by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) office in Ploiesti.

Victor Ponta’s reaction came on Twitter, shortly after the news hit the Romanian media. “I don’t know of the prosecutors’ investigation on my brother-in-law, and it would be wrong to comment on this. The law must be equal to all,” he wrote on the social media network.

In October 2014, Ponta’s father-in-law Ilie Sarbu was also questioned in an illegal forest restitution case in which Romanian politician Viorel Hrebenciuc was arrested. Sarbu and Hrebenciuc were two of the most influential members of Ponta’s Social Democratic Party (PSD).

However, Ponta is not the only Romanian top official whose family had legal problems. In July 2014, former Romanian President Traian Basescu’s brother was arrested on charges of influence peddling. More recently, the prosecutors started investigating one of Basescu’s sons-in-law in a case related to illegal restitutions.

editor@romania-insider.com