Bucharest , Romania ( CNN ) -- Former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase was placed on three years of probation Friday in a corruption case that had been under investigation for more than six years . Romania 's Supreme Court found Nastase guilty of committing blackmail while he was prime minister , from 2000 to 2004 . He also had been accused of bribery , but the court found him innocent on that charge . Nastase had denied all the charges in the case and said the trial was a political one , ordered by Romania 's current president , Traian Basescu , who defeated Nastase when the two ran for president in 2004 . Nastase 's lawyer , Ion Cazacu , said he might appeal the decision . Nastase 's wife also was placed on three years of probation for using false documents . She was found innocent on other charges , including bribery . The trial of Nastase and his wife started in 2010 after Romania 's Anti-corruption Agency accused them of bribery and blackmail . Another main figure in the case was Irina Jianu , former head of a state construction agency , who was found innocent on charges of money laundry and bribery . However , the court found her guilty of using false documents , and she was sentenced to three years in prison . During the trial , the Anti-corruption Agency stated that Nastase received directly or through his wife â‚¬630,000 ( $ 840,000 ) from Jianu while he was a prime minister . In return , the agency said , Nastase named Jianu as head of the construction agency . According to the prosecutors , the money was used by Nastase to buy objects and goods from China and to cover the cost of some work done at two of his houses , in Bucharest and Cornu . The Supreme Court found Nastase and his wife innocent regarding these accusations . The anti-corruption agency also said Nastase sent almost â‚¬90,000 ( $ 120,000 ) to Ioan Paun , who was then a Romanian consul-general in China . The agency said the money was meant to be used in China for the purchase of various goods and objects for the Nastase family . This was the second conviction for Nastase this year . In January , he was sentenced to two years of prison in what was known as the Quality Trophy corruption case . He has appealed that decision . In that case , the Romanian Supreme Court found Nastase guilty of illegally raising â‚¬1.6 million ( $ 2.1 million ) during his 2004 campaign for president as the candidate of the Social Democrat Party . Nastase was also involved in another case , known as the Aunt Tamara case , in which he was accused of paying a $ 400,000 bribe to the former head of the country 's anti-money-laundering agency to delete some documents related to his wife 's bank account . Nastase was found innocent in that case . Nastase was the first former prime minister and the highest official to get a jail sentence in Romania since the fall of communism . The European Union has repeatedly called on Romania to put more effort into tackling corruption by top-level officials and politicians .
Former Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase is found guilty of blackmail . He was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $US1 million ($A1.23 million) for his role as an intermediary between the government and businessman George Copos. Nastase has said the trial was ordered by his political rival , President Traian Basescu . Nastase was convicted in January on separate corruption charges .