Horațiu Potra and 19 others were caught heading to Bucharest with weapons and 25,000 lei ($18,000) in cash on Monday. The next day, Potra was released after his 24-hour detention expired and was put under 60 days’ police supervision by a court. Investigators said they had found two million euros in cash at his home.

Candidate for Romanian president Georgescu, whose first-round win in a presidential ballot was overturned over accusations of Russian meddling, had previously denied allegations he knew Potra.

The Romania Journal news site reported that it had been confirmed on Monday that Georgescu had met Potra and another former Foreign Legion fighter, Eugen Sechila, at a horse farm outside Bucharest on Saturday. The site said the confirmation had come from the farm’s Syrian owner.

Meanwhile pictures have been made public of an earlier meeting between Georgescu and Potra at a Bucharest hotel.

On Monday evening, Georgescu told a Romanian TV news channel that Potra is not “in his circle of close friends” and that the photos were taken two or three years ago, Romania Journal reported.

Police have broadened their investigations into Potra and are conducting 12 searches in three locations including the suspect’s home, the Romania Journal said.