Elena Udrea, a former minister of Tourism and former member of Democrat Liberal Party, has been sentenced to six years in prison in the Bute Gala file by the Supreme Court on Thursday. The ruling is final and cannot be challenged anymore.
A five-judge panel from the High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected on Thursday, as unfounded, the annulment appeals filed by Elena Udrea and the other defendants in the Gala Bute case, the former Minister of Tourism serving a 6-year prison sentence. The court’s decision was taken by a majority of votes and is final, so Elena Udrea will go to jail.
Elena Udrea left the country by car this morning, through Giurgiu Customs, with police puttin out an APB on her name.
The Border Police has confirmed that Elena Udrea had left the country, but mentioned she did it legally, as she was not targeted by any restrictions at that time.
It is not the first time the former minister fled Romania. She also did it in 2018 when she left Romania also through Giurgiu Customs, initially heading to Greece, and then to Cost Rica.
Few hours after the announcement of her fleeing Romania, Udrea was caught in Bulgaria. “Following the cooperation between the specialized structures within the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Bulgarian authorities, the woman, on whose name a warrant for the execution of the prison sentence is issued, was found on the territory of Bulgaria “, announced the Romanian Police.
In June 2018, Elena Udrea was sentenced in this case to 6 years in prison for committing bribery and abuse of office. At the time, she was in Costa Rica, where she had sought political asylum. In October 2018, she was detained by Interpol in Costa Rica, where she was imprisoned. In December 2018, she was released, following the decision of the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the panels of 5 judges of the supreme court are illegal. In July 2019, Elena Udrea returned to Romania.
So, the Supreme Court ruled today a final verdict in this case, after seven years of delays and trials, during which the defendants took advantage of a Constitutional Court ruling to procrastinate the file.
The former president of the Romanian Boxing Federation, Rudel Obreja, who will serve a five-year sentence, so he will also go to prison in this case, as will Tudor Breazu (the administrator of the lands in Nana owned by Elena Udrea), who received 3 years with execution.
The other defendants have suspended sentences: Ştefan Lungu (former counselor of Elena Udrea) – one year and six months suspended; Gheorghe Nastasia (former Secretary General of the Ministry of Development) – 4 years suspended; Ana Maria Topoliceanu (former director of the National Investment Company) – 3 years with suspension, Dragoş Marius Botoroagă (administrator of a company) – two years and six months with suspension.
Charges in this file
The “Bute Gala” case reached the supreme court in April 2015, the charges being bribery, abuse of office, complicity in bribery, tax evasion and money laundering.
The prosecutors stated in the indictment that on June 24, 2011 a service contract was concluded, awarded by negotiation without publication of a notice of participation, between the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism (MDRT) and SC Europlus Computers SRL, Rudel Obreja’s company, having as object of providing Romania’s promotion services within the events held on the occasion of the organization of the International Professional Boxing Gala by the Romanian Boxing Federation.
Based on this contract, on February 1, 2012, the Ministry of Regional Development and Tourism paid for the promotion services amounting to 8,116,800 lei.
“Public funds were used in a manner prohibited by law, respectively to finance a sporting event organized by a company, and the amount paid under the contract is entirely a damage to the ministry’s assets. The conclusion of the contract was actually providing the necessary funds for the organization of the mentioned boxing gala, and the purchase of advertising services was only a formal justification, for which there is no real need of the ministry, for the sole purpose of giving an appearance of legality to the contract. Moreover, the contract was assigned in violation of the legal procurement procedures and services were purchased that are not among the categories of eligible expenditure for European funded programs”, prosecutors say.
Investigators claimed that Elena Udrea had the most important contribution to the commission of these acts and to the production of the result, because she decided to organize the gala after informal discussions with Rudel Obreja, determined the adoption of normative acts that created the financing of the event. repeatedly asked subordinate officials to meet with Obreja to identify solutions to the conclusion of the contract and was directly involved in setting the budget to be allocated by MDRT outside the framework of the procurement procedure.