Statute Of Limitations Rids Romanian Businessman S.O. Vantu Of Forgery Charges

The Bucharest Court of Appeals decided Tuesday, by final decision, the discontinuation of the trial on the creation of the International Bank for Development (BID), a case where businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vantu was charged with forgery.

The sentence was rendered, considering the charges passed their statute of limitations, with one separate opinion, as one of he three judges in the panel said the case file should have been retried in the Bucharest Court.

The Bucharest Court of Appeals decision thus changes the ruling of the lower court, where Vantu had been acquitted.

On November 18, 2008, a Bucharest court acquitted Romanian businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vantu of using false documents to set up a bank.

Vantu, owner of a television news channel in Romania, was sentenced to two years in prison back in 2005 for using false documents that allowed him to gain majority shares in the former Investment and Development Bank, or BID.

Vantu was also sentenced to pay 150,000 lei (EUR1=RON4.2911) in court costs.

The Investment and Development Bank went bankrupt in 2002.

mediafax.ro