Irina Socol, president and one of the main shareholders of Romanian IT group SIVECO Romania, was held by prosecutors on Tuesday morning in a tax evasion case related to software sales. This comes after searches conducted by the police on Monday at several local companies, including Siveco.

Socol was held for 24 hours after she had been questioned by the prosecutors for several hours, according to Mediafax newswire. Another person was also held in this case. UPDATE: Later on during the day, she was arrested for 30 days, as a preventive measure. The court decision can be appealed. According to prosecutors, Socol was the one who created the tax evasion ring.

According to the police, fictitious services of software services were allegedly registered in the accountancy books of the software manufacturer. However, in reality the services were never provided, bringing a damage of over EUR 3 million to the state budget.

Siveco is one of the largest software integration companies in Romania. Last year, the company had sales of EUR 46.6 million and a net profit of EUR 10.4 million. The company was started in 1992 and has almost 800 employees.

editor@romania-insider.com