Romania Election Boss Faces Corruption Charge

Prosecutors from Romania's National Anticorruption Directorate on Tuesday arrested the head of the Permanent Electoral Authority, AEP, Ana Maria Patru, and charged her with influence peddling and money laundering.

Patru, 40, faces three accounts of influence peddling and two accounts of money laundering committed between 2007 and 2015.

According to prosecutors, Patru accepted 210,000 euros in a bribe in 2009, which she used to buy a house in Bucharest, and another 65,000s in 2011, which she used to buy a car among other things.

In exchange for the cash, she allegedly intervened in assigning contracts to certain IT companies and promised to keep supporting them in future tenders.

Part of the alleged deal included facilitating contacts between the head of an IT company and the Minister of Economy, investigators added. The IT equipment obtained for the elections is now also being examined.

Patru was brought in for questioning on Tuesday and interrogated while anti-graft prosecutors searched AEP's Bucharest headquarters and several of Patru's homes. She was later detained for 24 hours.

Her lawyer told the media that she had already submitted her resignation.    

The prosecutors said they also conducted searches at three other locations and apprehended her husband as he tried to escape with documents belonging to a company he had recently closed down.

The graft investigation comes at a sensitive time ahead of general elections on December 11. The AEP is the main institution responsible for organising the polls.

Patru has headed the AEP since spring 2012, when she was appointed by parliament with strong support from former President Traian Băsescu's Democratic Liberal Party.