Bucharest Court Sentences Ex-Min’s Husband To Suspended Jail Term For Corruption

The Bucharest Court of Appeals on Thursday sentenced the husband of former Minister of European Integration to two-and-a-half years suspended prison for embezzlement of some EUR150,000 EU funding.

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Iosif Mihai Puwak, husband of former social democrat minister Hildegard Puwak, was convicted for mishandling European funds granted for education projects via the Leonardo Da Vinci program.

The court decision is final and binding.

Romanian anticorruption prosecutors have started an inquiry in 2003 to determine how EU contracts worth EUR150,000 had been given to family members of Hildegard Puwak.

The European Commission also launched a probe into the matter and later requested full refunding of the money.

Hildegard Puwak initially declined any involvement, saying the contracts were assigned prior to her taking office as Minister of European Integration.

Investigations, however, determined two of the projects handled by her family’s companies had been attributed after she took office.

She subsequently resigned.

After her resignation, Romanian prosecutors closed the case against her husband Iosif Puwak and their son, Mihai.

In 2005, when the National Anticorruption Department came under new management, the case was reopened.

Iosif Puwak received a first sentence to two and a half years in prison in December 2007.

Puwak appealed the decision before the Bucharest Courthouse, which gave a similar sentence, only with suspended time.

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