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Hard hit on the court for Elena Udrea and Ioana Băsescu. The former Minister of Tourism received 8 years in prison, and the eldest daughter of the former president, 5 years. Both sentences are executable, but in the first instance.
The magistrates of the Court of Appeals found them guilty of corruption, related to the financing of the campaign for the presidential elections, but also for the referendum, starting in 2009.
Elena Udrea was convicted of instigating bribery and money laundering. She was accused of contributing to the illegal financing of the electoral campaign in 2009. A significant part of the money used in the presidential elections and the referendum at that time would have come from corruption offenses.
Ioana Băsescu was tried for instigating embezzlement and money laundering. The eldest daughter of the former president is accused of convincing the director of a state company, as well as her then boyfriend, an Italian businessman, to contribute illegal funds in the same 2009 campaign to finance the electoral campaign.
The Italian agreed to collaborate with investigators and even allegedly secretly recorded Ioana Băsescu. Neither she nor her lawyer wanted to comment on the sentence.
For Elena Udrea, it is the second conviction in the first instance after the Gala Bute case, in which she received 6 years in prison. The case is currently suspended, because the Supreme Court judges are awaiting a verdict from the Court of Justice of the European Union, which may influence the evolution of the process.
Due to Elena Udrea’s conviction, the judge of the Bucharest Court of Appeal ordered not only the sentence to be carried out by the former Minister of Tourism, but also the confiscation of one million lei. There is money that, according to DNA prosecutors, comes from corruption crimes and was spent to finance Traian Basescu’s campaign.
The former head of state did not formulate a point of view, since he did not want to say anything about the conviction of his daughter in the same case.
The judgment of the Bucharest Court of Appeal can be challenged in the High Court of Cassation and Justice.
