2011 cash for influence scandal


In 2011, the European Commission’s Anti-fraud Office opened a formal investigation for corruption against four Members of European Parliament —Romanian Adrian Severin, Austrian Ernst Strasser, Spaniard Pablo Zalba Bidegain, and Slovenian Zoran Thaler—after an article in The Sunday Times claimed that they had tried to influence EU legislation in exchange for money. The Sunday Times journalists went undercover and approached 60 MEPs, posing as lobbyists and requesting votes to table or support certain amendments in exchange for money.

Indictments

Strasser and Thaler resigned in March 2011; Strasser was sentenced to four years in jail on 14 January 2013. OLAF dismissed the case against Thaler, claiming that it had been unable to find "evidence to support suspicion of wrongdoing". However, in January 2014 Slovenia's own judicial system found Thaler guilty and sentenced him to two and a half years in prison.
Claiming innocence, Adrian Severin has refused to step down and continues to work as an MEP, even after he was expelled by the Socialists & Democrats group of the European Parliament. He was indicted by Romania's anti-corruption agency in September 2013 and in February 2016, he was convicted to three and half years in prison in court, although the judgement was appealed. On 16 November 2016, a final sentence was handed down and his sentence was increased to 4 years imprisonment. He still has the support of the Social Democratic Party, his political party in Romania.