Romanian businessman Georgica Cornu from Timisoara and 14 others were held by prosecutors yesterday for tax evasion and money laundering.

The prosecutors of the Mehedinti county court took this decision after they conducted 61 searches on Tuesday morning in various locations in Bucharest and ten other counties. The searches also targeted Cornu’s home in Timisoara and the headquarters of some of his firms.

The judicial authorities also questioned 46 people, including Georgica Cornu. More than 100 people and 88 companies are targeted by this investigation. The group allegedly used fictitious invoices and non-existent transactions to lower their tax obligations, between 2008 and 2014. The estimated damages to the state budget are EUR 9 million, according to Mediafax.

Georgica Cornu is also known as “the asphalt king of Banat”, as his firms worked on several infrastructure projects in the Banat region of Romania. He owns the Izometal-Confort group of companies, which specializes mostly in construction. His companies have received many contracts from state authorities throughout the years.

The prosecutors of the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism DIICOT also arrested Cornu for 24 hours in March 2014, as they investigated him in another case of tax evasion, of over EUR 13 million. The court then placed him under judicial control.

editor@romania-insider.com