Gigi Becali, an MP for the ruling National Liberal Party and owner of the football club Steaua Bucarest, has been definitively found guilty by the High Court of Appeals and Justice, which, on May 20, sentenced him to three years in prison for his part in a corrupt business deal that took place in 1997.
Becali was charged with unlawful profiteering in the deal, which involved the exchange of 30 hectares of land with the Romanian Ministry of Defence.
For România liberă —
Becali is finally having to pay for the greatest ever swindle of the state. […] In the case, which was led by prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate, two other public figures (the minister of defence of the period, and a former chief of general staff) were also sentenced to two years in prison.
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