Court slaps heavy sentences on Romanian businessmen for fraud
Romanian businessman Ovidiu Tender, one of Romania’s richest, was sentenced to 12 years and 7 months jail time, no parole, for defrauding Romanian petrochemical plant Carom Onesti.
Tender’s former associate, Marian Iancu, also got a 14-year sentence. Iancu is already serving time, as he was also sentenced to 12 years in jail, in October 2014, for tax evasion and money laundering at the Rafo refinery.
Both Carom and Rafo went bankrupt.
The Bucharest Court of Appeal found Tender and Iancu guilty of fraud of money laundering. They illegally took over Carom in 2003 and defrauded the company by some RON 140 million (EUR 31 million at current exchange rates), the prosecutors said.
The investigation against Tender and Iancu started in 2005 and the case was sent to court in 2006 by former anti-organized crime chief prosecutor Alina Bica, who was also recently prosecuted for corruption in another case.
The Court’s sentence is final. It came just a few hours before the actions for which Tender and Iancu were indicted would have been prescribed and the two would have gotten away.
Ovidiu Tender is one of Romania’s top 10 richest, with an estimated net worth of EUR 400 million, according to a Forbes ranking. He owns Romania’s only oil and gas prospecting company and other businesses in Romania and Africa.
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editor@romania-insider.com
