Former Romanian senator and minister sentenced to three years in jail for bribery

Former Romanian senator Dan Sova, who also served as a transport minister in the Victor Ponta cabinet, was sentenced to three years in jail, no parole, for influence peddling and bribery. The High Court’s decision is final and Sova turned himself in for incarceration on Wednesday afternoon, according to local Mediafax.

Dan Sova was sent to court for using his influence over the general manager of state-owned energy producer CET Govora, Mihai Balan, to convince him to sign legal assistance contracts with a certain law firm. For this, Sova received EUR 100,000 from a representative of that firm, who later denounced him.

Dan Sova convinced the CET Govora manager to sign a contract with that law firm worth EUR 10,000 per month. He asked for EUR 5,000 for each month the contract was valid, namely half of the contract’s value, according to the prosecutors. This happened between October 2011 and July 2014.

Dan Sova, 45, was a senator in Romania’s Parliament between 2008 and May 2015. He also served as a minister for the relationship with the Parliament in the first cabinet led by Victor Ponta, between August and December 2012, and then as a minister delegate for infrastructure projects, from December 2012 until March 2013, and transport minister between March and June 2014.

Sova, who was colleague with former prime minister Victor Ponta at the Bucharest University’s Law Faculty, was also indicted together with Ponta in a corruption case related to legal assistance services that Sova’s law firm provided to local energy producers CE Rovinari and CE Turceni. However, the two were recently acquitted of all charges in that case.

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