Former mayor of Cantemir, investigated by the NAC for passive corruption and forgery of public documents, sentenced to over 7 years in prison and fined 400,000 lei

The Cahul Court (central seat) found the former mayor of a commune in the Cantemir district guilty of committing the crime of passive corruption and forgery of public documents in a case investigated by the National Anti-corruption Centre (NAC). The court ordered a prison sentence of 7 years and 3 months, to be served in a closed-type penitentiary, and a fine of 400,000 lei, with deprivation of the right to hold certain public positions for a period of 10 years.

According to the evidence presented in court, the defendant, during the period November 2018 - August 2019, following the conclusion of a construction contract with a company to carry out the repair of the House of Culture of the commune of which he was the mayor, systematically extorted and received from the deputy director of the company the amount of 300,000 lei in several instalments (5% of the contract amount), not to create impediments to the reception of the executed works and to sign the minutes of reception of the works.

After receiving the extorted amount, although the works were not carried out in full, the mayor signed and authenticated the minutes of reception of the works, with a clearly exaggerated cost at the total amount of 4,193,102.24, thus causing material damage to the City Hall.

The sentence can be appealed to the Southern Court of Appeal within 15 days.

Note: A person accused of committing a crime shall be presumed innocent until proven guilty by a final court decision.