The mayor of Maximovca village of Anenii Noi district and his adviser were arrested on suspicion that they appropriated foreign property, exceeded their authority and forged public documents. According to the National Anticorruption Center, the two functionaries, abusing their power, misappropriated 33,000 lei from the local public budget through a contract for the repair of a bridge that included false data, IPN reports.

For that reason, the public servants asked the administrator of a company to sign the contract. An invoice for the amount of 33,000 lei was issued, based on which the mayor transferred the money from the account of the mayor’s office to that of the company so as to later get the money. For this service, the company was to obtain an illegal commission, while the other sum was to be transmitted to the adviser, as they agreed beforehand.

Two days ago, the money was transmitted under the control of anticorruption officers. Upon a search at the adviser’s home on October 17, the police found and seized 22,000 lei of the transmitted sum. In the mayor’s office, there were found the false documents used to perform this deal.

The mayor and the adviser were arrested for 72 hours. They face a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 lei and two to six years in jail for appropriation. In both of the cases, these will be banned from holding particular posts or performing particular activities for a period of up to five years.