Gica Popescu has been jailed for three years and one month for tax evasion and money laundering related to dodgy transfer deals.
Ironically, the former Romania international has been imprisoned just a day before he was due to take up a new job… as the next president of the Romanian FA.
I kid you not.
Popescu was among eight Romanian football officials found guilty of tax evasion and money laundering in connection with the transfer of 12 players.
Of those convicted, the appeals court sentenced former Dinamo Bucharest executive chairman Cristi Borcea to six years and four months, Rapid Bucharest chairman George Copos to three years and eight months, and former defender Popescu to three years and one month.
They appealed after being convicted in November 2012 and will be jailed Tuesday.
The case involves players transferred from Dinamo, Rapid, Otelul Galati and Gloria Bistrita to foreign clubs from 1999-2005.
Prosecutors said the state lost 1.7 million euros in taxes and the clubs lost 10 million euros because the officials falsified the amounts received by the selling clubs.
