Sebastian Vlădescu

Sebastian Teodor Gheorghe Vlădescu (born April 3, 1958) is a Romanian economist and politician. A former member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), he was the Minister of Public Finance of Romania in the first Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu cabinet (between August 22, 2005 and April 4, 2007) and starting from December 23, 2009 in the Emil Boc cabinet.

Vlădescu graduated in 1983 from the Commerce Faculty of the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. During the Romanian Democratic Convention government, he was a State Secretary and a Counselor in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce in the Victor Ciorbea cabinet (1997) and in the Ministry of Finance (between 1998 and 2000, during the premierships of Radu Vasile and Mugur Isărescu). Between 2001 and 2005 he was a finance director in a private company and between April and August 2005 he was president of the Supervising Council of Banca Comercială Română.

In 2018 he was arrested for taking bribes linked to a railway contract. He denies the charges, but brought 3 kilograms of gold worth €110,000 EUR and an additional €315,000 in cash to bail himself on corruption charges. The bail procedure was recently introduced in the Romanian penal code and represents an alternative to preventive arrest. Since the procedure came into force in 2014, this is the first time a bail was partially or fully redeemed in gold, according to the DNA website.

For the rest of the €1 million sum, Mr.Vladescu offered real-estate guarantees. The valuables were deposited in an account belonging to the National Anticorruption Directorate according to the institution's press releases.