CORRUPTION WITHOUT BORDERS The Media Pro case: 10 of the 11 defendants have been arrested

• UPDATE - Vişinescu Mihai, film director, was acquitted in File no. 324/P/2015, by order of the case, according to the Ordinance of the Prosecutor's Office attached to Bucharest Tribunal, dated 31.01.2019.

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Ten of the eleven defendants in the Media Pro case of tax evasion and money laundering were placed in preventive custody on Wednesday, by the Court of Bucharest, for 30 days, after, on Tuesday, the Bucharest Police had conducted searches in 26 locations in Bucharest and Ilfov, in order to dismantle a group specializing in tax evasion and money laundering.

Among others, the Media Pro studios at Buftea were targeted by the searches. Prosecutors estimate a loss of 1.5 million Euros The losses incurred by the state budget as a result of the tax evasion, and approximately 10 million Euros through money laundering.

The only one who is being investigated without being detained is painter Elena Calapereanu, about whom the press wrote that she works in TV production. The artist is charged with indirect participation in tax evasion.

On Tuesday, the Prosecutors' Office of the Court of Bucharest decided the 24-hour arrest of 11 people, most of them suspected of tax evasion and money laundering.

Of the ten people arrested on Wednesday, Tudorel Bilciurescu, Valentin Şoachete, Silviu Ştefan Dorobanţu, Roxana Petchi and Ion Tudor are suspected of tax evasion and money laundering.

Mihai Vişinescu is suspected of having committed both of the aforementioned offenses, as well as complicity in fraud.

The prosecutors are also charging Dan Cristian Răileanu, Răzvan Adrian Răduţiu and Vlad-Ioan Panaitescu with tax evasion, and Puiu Prescure with fraud.

According to sources from the press, Tudorel Bilciurescu works as manager at ASKO International (a Honda dealer), and Valentin Şoachete is the head of AS Grup International (a company which manages locations for hosting trade exhibitions and cultural events). Silviu Ştefan Dorobanţu is registered as manager of All Ways Forward SRL (a company whose line of business is various printing services), whereas Mihai Vişinescu is a producer and director, and Răzvan Adrian Răduţiu works as executive at Blue Film. Vlad Ioan Panaitescu is the manager of Autentic Set, a construction company that works in Buftea. He was in charge of buildings the props for the shows of Pro TV.

According to the indictment drawn up by the Prosecutors' Office of the Court of Bucharest, between 2009 and 2014, the 11 defendants allegedly "designed and conceived several financial circuits, for the purpose of defrauding the state budget, as well as for laundering and recycling amounts derived from tax evasion, thus running two sets of books".

"The defendants, as representatives of companies that had as their line of business companies intended to deliver services in the field of media and advertising, have booked fictitious transactions on those companies' financial records and reported fictitious purchases to the fiscal authorities, originating from a number of 16 companies that displayed all the characteristics of < shell companies >, which had similar lines of business. The amounts representing the equivalent value of those purchases were being transferred to the bank accounts of the < shell companies >, from where they would be withdrawn in cash by their representatives, under various pretenses, and delivered in cash to those who had ordered the transfers".

The prosecutors also claim that "the defendants, as individuals, have provided several media and advertising services to other companies, for which they issued several invoices for fictitious purchases in the name of several < shell companies >, which they then used to collect the amounts delivered to the beneficiaries of the services, which were then withdrawn in cash and delivered to the individuals who had actually provided those services, thus succeeding in < concealing > the taxable earnings from the tax administration".

The Prosecutors' Office has seized the movable and immovable assets of the 11 defendants, "in order to recoup the losses caused to the state budget as a result of the tax evasion offenses and in order to seize the laundered amounts".