Ex-Interior minister Gabriel Berca arrested for 30 days for influence peddling
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Former Interior minister Gabriel Berca was arrested for 30 days on Friday after Bacau Court of Appeal admitted the anti-corruption prosecutors request.
He had been taken in custody for 24 hours on Thursday in a influence peddling file. Berca, who was also presidential adviser during Traian Basescu’s term as president, is accused of receiving EUR 180,000 from a businessman in exchange for his intervention on some members of the Government to allot money to a town hall.
Berca was subpoenaed to the National Anti-corruption Directorate in Bacau in the morning, under the charge of influence peddling allegedly committed during 2010-2012. Prosecutors also investigate former MP Mihai Banu in this case. Judicial sources told local media that Berca asked businessman Viorel Rusu over EUR 180,000 that he received in several tranches for himself and for the party he was enrolled in, the Democrat Liberal Party. The transaction would have taken place through Mihai Banu.
In exchange for the money, Berca, who was also a senator at that time, would have promised to intercede with some Government members so that they would allot funds to Ardeaoani commune in Bacau county to pay the constructions works worth RON 5.6m made by the company of businessman Viorel Rusu.
Berca was Interior Minister in 2012, Traian Basescu’s presidential adviser, secretary general of the Government led by Calin Popescu Tariceanu. He was also Bacau prefect during 2005-2008.
Berca was a PDL member, then he left for the People’s Movement Party (PMP) and he had joined UNPR in early June, this year.
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