Romanian businessman Copos gets another final jail conviction, no parole, in tax evasion case

Romanian businessman George Copos, the former owner of Rapid football club, and owner of several hotels across Romania, was sentenced to another 4 years in jail, no parole, in a tax evasion case nicknamed Loteria 1. The court’s decision is final. George Copos is currently serving jail time in Rahova prison near Bucharest. In March this year, he was convicted to three years and eight months in prison, without parole, in a case involving transfer of football players. Read more about the jail sentence for Romanian football bosses here. It is yet uncertain how the new sentence will affect the businessman's current jail term. By Romanian law, when two jail sentences are issues, the longest of the two is served. This would mean that Copos' current jail sentence could be upped by four months, to four years. Copos was sent to trial in 2006 in the Loteria 1 case, when prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate DNA determined that Ana Electronic, a company owned by the Romanian businessman, sold several retail spaces to the Romanian Lottery in 2004. Copos was charged with tax evasion in this case, and the damage was estimated at some EUR 1 million. Four other people were sentenced to jail in Loteria 1 case, namely Gilio Giuzepe Roza, Stelian Ioan Ratiu, Nicolae Cristea and Gabriel Rogoveanu. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com