Romanian businessman Florian Walter, who left the country in May 2015, just before the prosecutors raided his home and officially started a tax evasion investigation on him, surrendered himself to the authorities in Dubai last week.

The Romanian Police took him in their custody on Saturday, March 5, and brought him back to the country, where he will remain under arrest until the court and the prosecutors decide the next steps of the investigation against him.

The prosecutors charged Walter for setting up an organized crime group, tax evasion, and money laundering. Walter’s biggest company is Romprest, which provides public sanitation services in Bucharest’s District 1 and other cities in Romania.

Florian Walter got permanent residency in the United Arab Emirates at the end of last year. Romania doesn’t have an extradition agreement with the EAU.

However, Florian Walter decided to turn himself in and filed an extradition request to the authorities in the EAU saying that he had the evidence to defend himself against the accusations in Romania, according to Mediafax.

“A person in my home country is trying to take over my company aggressively, which exposes me to danger, both physically and mentally,” Walter wrote in his extradition request to the Arab authorities. “I wish to return to Romania to defend myself against the accusations that have been brought to me there and because I have the evidence that will prove my innocence. I wish to surrender to the Romanian authorities willingly,” reads Walter’s request, which was presented by one of his lawyers.

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editor@romania-insider.com