Romanian businessman and former media owner Sorin Ovidiu Vantu was taken into Police custody on Thursday morning (January 23) after having allegedly tried to leave the country, according to Romanian TV station B1TV.

He appears to have had fake identity papers issued in the Republic of Moldova, on the name Sorin Haralambie, according to the TV station.

Back in 2012, Vantu was convicted and sentenced to one year in jail for having blackmailed the former manager of Realitatea Media, Sebastian Ghita. He served the sentence and was released in May 2013.

A previous court sentenced him to six months in jail but prosecutors insisted on upping his sentence to five years in jail. This is Vantu’s first conviction, but may not be his last as he is being investigated for money laundering and the FNI Ponzi scheme from the late 90s.

Vantu used to own TV station Realitatea TV, which he officially sold to real estate investor Elan Schwartzenberg in 2011.

- to be updated -

editor@romania-insider.com