Gabriel Sandu (born September 8, 1963) is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n economist and politician. A member of the Democratic Liberal Party (PD-L), he was a member of the

Romanian Chamber of Deputies The Chamber of Deputies () is the lower house in Romania's Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Romania, parliament. It has 312 regular seats to which Chamber of Deputies, deputies are elected by direct popular vote using party-list proportiona ...

for

Brăila County Brăila County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Brăila. Demographics At the 2021 Romanian census, Brăila County had a population of 281,452 (172,533 people in urban areas and 108,919 people in rural ...

from 2004 to 2008. In the

Emil Boc Emil Boc (; born 6 September 1966) is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from 22 December 2008 until 6 February 2012 and is the current mayor of Cluj-Napoca, the largest city of Transylvania, where he was first elected in J ...

cabinet, he was Minister of Communications and Information Society from 2008 to 2010, also serving as interim Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, Commerce and Business Environment in late 2009. He has two sons and is divorced.Profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site
; retrieved May 23, 2009

Biography

He was born in

Mizil Mizil () is a town in Prahova County, Muntenia, Romania. Located in the southeastern part of the county, it lies along the road between the cities of Ploiești and Buzău, and to the northeast of the national capital, Bucharest. Its position led i ...

Prahova County Prahova County () is a county (județ) of Romania, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical region Muntenia, with the capital city at Ploiești. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 762,886 and the population density was 161/k ...

and after attending secondary school at the town's Grigore Tocilescu Theoretical High School, with a focus on mathematics and physics, enrolled at the

Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies The Bucharest University of Economic Studies (, abbreviated ASE) is a public university in Bucharest, Romania. Founded in 1913 as the ''Academy of Higher-level Commercial and Industrial Studies'' (''Academia de Înalte Studii Comerciale și Indu ...

. He graduated in 1989 from the Commerce faculty. From 1990 to 1993 he headed the import-export division at a mattress factory in Mizil. From 1993 to 1997, he was vice president of a furniture producer and distributor in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

. From 1997 to 2004, he was director of a private firm.Profile at the Romanian Government site
; retrieved May 23, 2009 After joining the Union of Right-Wing Forces (UFD), Sandu became the president of its Prahova County chapter in 1999. He was then vice president (2000-2001) and secretary general (2001-2003) of the party before its absorption into the National Liberal Party (PNL). From 2003 to 2004, he was a supplementary member of the PNL's executive bureau and vice president of its Prahova County chapter. In November 2004, he was

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population ch ...

to the Chamber, where he served on the Committee for Political Economy, Reform and Privatisation. From 2004 to 2006, he was part of the PNL's executive bureau and vice president of its Brăila County chapter. In December 2006, he resigned from the PNL to follow

Theodor Stolojan Theodor Dumitru Stolojan (; born 24 October 1943) is a Romanian politician who was Prime Minister of Romania from September 1991 to November 1992. An economist by training, he was also one of the presidents of the National Liberal Party (PNL) be ...

into the new

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

(PLD), serving as that party's vice president for organisational consolidation and development. A year later, when the PLD merged into the PD-L, Sandu followed, and since then he has served as a vice president of the party and as first vice president of the Prahova County chapter. At the 2008 election, Sandu ran for a Prahova County

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

seat, but lost. During the campaign, two builders accused him of not paying 87,724 lei (some $35,000) for two houses he ordered built in

Sinaia Sinaia () is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. It is situated in the historical region of Muntenia. The town was named after the Sinaia Monastery of 1695, around which it was built. The monastery, in turn, is named after ...

; his name was also cited by an anti-money laundering agency regarding his dealings with an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

company that was itself suspected of laundering. The following month, he was named minister in the incoming government."Guvern de regăţeni, cu 'moţ' ardelean" ("Old Kingdom Government, with a Few Transylvanians")
, ''Adevărul'', 19 December 2008; retrieved May 23, 2009 His priorities as minister include rapidly accessing

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Structural Funds The European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds, ESIFs) are financial tools governed by a common rulebook, set up to implement the regional policy of the European Union, as well as the structural policy pillars of the Common Agricultura ...

, increasing interoperability among government agencies, developing the IT and

broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

sectors, and

digital television transition The digital television transition, also called the digital switchover (DSO), the analogue switch/sign-off (ASO), the digital migration, or the analogue shutdown, is the process in which older analogue television broadcasting technology is con ...

. In October 2009, he became interim Small and Medium Enterprises Minister following the resignation of his PSD cabinet colleagues, including

Constantin Niță Constantin Niță (born November 27, 1955) is a Romanian economist and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), he has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Brașov County since 2000. In the Emil Boc cabinet, h ...

, the previous occupant of that ministry, holding the portfolio until December. He was dismissed from the Communications Ministry in September 2010, following a cabinet reshuffle. Sandu was implicated in the

Microsoft licensing corruption scandal The Microsoft licensing corruption scandal was a political scandal and criminal investigation in Romania, involving large bribes paid to Romanian government members in exchange for approving increases in license fees for Microsoft products. It was c ...

, being charged with bribe-taking and money laundering. In March 2016, the

High Court of Cassation and Justice The High Court of Cassation and Justice () is Romania's supreme court. It is the equivalent of France's Cour de Cassation and serves a similar function to other courts of cassation around the world. Naming history It held various names durin ...

sentenced him to two years' imprisonment and asset forfeiture of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

2.2 million. That October, the court increased his prison sentence to three years."Condamnări definitive în Dosarul 'Microsoft'" ("Final Sentences in the Microsoft Case")
Mediafax, 3 October 2016; accessed October 3, 2016

References

External links

Official site

Profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandu, Gabriel Democratic Liberal Party (Romania) politicians National Liberal Party (Romania) politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Romania) Ministers of communications of Romania Romanian economists Romanian businesspeople People from Mizil Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies alumni Romanian politicians convicted of corruption 1963 births Living people