Ilie Sarbu (73 years old), father-in-law of the former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, now honorary adviser to the Prime Minister Marcel Čolaku, has been appointed as a member of the board of directors of the Romsilva National Forest Management Board, according to the decree. under the signature of the Minister of Environment Mirchi Feshet (PNL), writes G4Media. In 2014, the DNA opened a criminal investigation against Sarbu over illegal retrocessions that left Romsilva without 44,000 hectares of forest, but removed him from the criminal investigation in 2018.

On November 23, by order of Minister Feshe, Ilye Sarba was appointed a member of Romsilva’s Central Committee. Syarbu is a temporary member of the board of directors. Later, by the decision of Romsilva’s board of directors dated December 12, 2023, Ilie Sjarba was appointed a member of the Audit Committee of the autonomous management, writes G4Media.

The environment minister told Free Europe that Ilie Sarbu, like all other temporary members of the board of directors of the national government, was proposed by Romsilva.

“I don’t want to express my opinion about his lordship. However, in the past it was a mandate, the minister of the environment, if someone qualifies enough to be able to be part of the interim administrative board,” Feshe said.

In October 2014, DNA prosecutors announced that Ilie Sarbu was being prosecuted in the Romsilva fraud case, along with Viorel Grebenčuk, former deputy Ioan Adam and former Romsilva director Adam Krecunescu. Prosecutors said the four formed an organized crime ring in 2012 through which they rigged the retrocession process that resulted in the disappearance of more than 40,000 hectares of forest from Romsilva’s heritage.

In 2018, DNA prosecutors ordered the case against Ilye Sarbu to be closed on the grounds that there was no evidence that he had committed a crime, according to DNA’s statement: “The analysis of the evidence revealed that there is insufficient evidence to support the commission of crimes by the person in question , on the use of influence by a person holding a leadership position in the party, with the aim of obtaining an illegal benefit for himself or another person and supporting an organized criminal group.”

In November 2023, the Supreme Court of Cassation decided to terminate the criminal proceedings against the defendants in the case of illegal removal of forests from Romsilva on the grounds that the facts of which they were accused had lapsed.

Ilie Sarbu, with a degree in theology and economics, served twice as Minister of Agriculture in the Nestase and Bok governments and was a senator several times. He was the president of the Senate and the Timiş County Council and one of the “heavyweights” of the PSD party. In August 2015, he announced his retirement from political life after 23 years.

In September 2015, Ilie Syarbu was appointed Vice-President of the Audit Authority at the Accounting Chamber, and he held this position until 2020. From 2020 to October 2023, he was the vice-president of the Accounting Chamber.

Ilie Sarbu is the father of former PSD MEP Daciana Sarbu, wife of former Prime Minister Viktor Ponta.