Romanian media mogul Cristian Burci, the owner of Adevarul Holding and Prima TV, was taken in for questioning by prosecutors from the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT), on Wesnesday, April 27. Burci is charged with tax evasion, the damage amounting to some EUR 8 million.

DIICOT Olt carried out four searches on Wednesday morning, one of them at Burci’s house and another one at a newspaper’s headquarters.

Burci and his accomplices have allegedly caused almost EUR 8 million in damages to local railway car producer Romvag Caracal, through illegal activities (abuse of office and embezzlement) carried out since 2006, judicial sources told Mediafax. The group's members have also allegedly laundered some EUR 19 million, which came from illegal activities.

The criminal group have also caused some EUR 5.7 million damages to the state budget through fictitious transactions and operations. The investigation targets nine people charged with setting up a crime group, abuse of office, embezzlement, and tax evasion.

Cristian Burci used to own several railway car factories in Romania, through the International Railway Systems (IRS) group, registered in Luxembourg. Burci's factories used to get big contracts from state-owned railway freight carrier CFR Marfa. The group's three biggest companies, namely Astra Vagoane Arad, Romvag Caracal, and Meva Drobeta Turnu Severin, went into insolvency in 2010. A new company, called Astra Rail Industries, took over the three factories in 2012.

Six media moguls have had problems with the law in the past years, namely Romanian deputy Sebastian Ghita, who owns the Romania TV news station, Dan Voiculescu, the owner of the Antena TV Group and Antena 3 news station, Dan Adamescu, the owner of the Romania Libera newspaper, Adrian Sarbu, owner of Mediafax Group, Sorin Ovidiu Vantu, the former owner of Realitatea TV, and Dan Diaconescu, who used to own OTV – the first tabloid television in Romania.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com