Extortion bid sends Romanian millionaire to jail

A Romanian court today sentenced flamboyant millionaire Dan Diaconescu, a politician and owner of the OTV television network, to three months in prison for blackmailing a small-town mayor, Mediafax agency reported.
The producer of controversial television shows was accused of trying to extort 200,000 euros from the mayor threatening to publish "real or fictitious compromising" facts on "unjustified assets or illegal real estate transactions".
It was not immediately known if Diaconescu, who is 46, will appeal.
He made headlines in 2012 when he ran for a seat in parliament against incumbent Prime Minister Victor Ponta, but lost.
The founder of a populist party campaigned with a white Rolls-Royce in the streets of the economically depressed southwestern town of Targu Jiu, marked by unemployment and a high poverty rate.