PayPal Donations Land Romanian Politician in Trouble

Romania's Permanent Electoral Authority, AEP, has confiscated 291,000 lei (65,000 euro) from Monica Macovei, a member of the European Parliament, which came in small donations for her failed 2014 presidential campaign, much of it via PayPal.

The AEP said it had experienced trouble in tracking money received via PayPal, which is why it had decided not to accept the donations as legal funds.

Macovei on Tuesday said she was ready to go to court against the decision, saying the authority had decided "to confiscate money transparently received and spent.

"All donations and expenses during the campaign were made via a financial representative, as required by law. On top of this, this representative declared the amounts received before the campaign started? We respected the law completely," she added.

PayPal is one of the world's largest international payment companies and its services are routinely used for the purpose of making political donations, including for electoral campaigns.

Ironically, the former Justice Minister is well known for her anti-corruption campaigning. She stood as an independent candidate in the 2014 presidential election, finishing in third position.

Macovei received some 147,000 euro for her campaign, and spent most of the cash according to official data. Hers was one of the lowest cost campaigns.

By contrast, the winner of the presidential race, Klaus Iohannis, amassed a budget of 1.1 million euro, and his campaign overspent by half a million euros.

Iohannis, 55, head of the opposition National Liberal Party, PNL, won a surprise win in November presidential elections, taking around 54.6 per cent of the vote.