Ex-Romanian lawmaker jailed for fraud, tax evasion

A Romanian court has sentenced a former lawmaker to four years in prison for tax evasion and fraud that involved charging people to help them get jobs in Israel that didn't exist.

Nati Meir, a dual Romanian-Israeli citizen, was convicted on Tuesday of cheating more than 100 Romanians in the job scheme in 2000-2005, and of evading euro600,000 (US$813,000) in taxes.

Meir, whose parents lived in Romania before World War II, moved to the country from Israel for business. He joined the nationalist party Greater Romania during an effort by its leadership to disprove claims that the party was anti-Semitic.

Meir's prosecution began after he left Parliament in 2008, and he was arrested in October.

Last year he briefly considered running for president.