The Bucharest Court sentenced Irina Socol, the founder and former president of Siveco, one of Romania’s biggest software producers, to three and a half years in prison for tax evasion.

The court's sentence is not final and can be challenged at the Appeals Court, reports local Mediafax.

The Romanian anticorruption prosecutors charged Socol for having set up a tax avoidance mechanism, in which her company was also involved. She had several accomplices, who admitted their deeds and explained to the investigators how the scheme worked.

The software producer recorded fictitious software creation services acquisitions from “ghost” companies. Siveco never received those services, but used the bills it allegedly paid for them to pay lower taxes, thus damaging the state budget by some EUR 3 million.

The prosecutors arrested Irina Socol in September 2014. She cooperated with the investigators, after spending two months in arrest, according to Romanian media.

editor@romania-insider.com