Romanian media owner Sorin Ovidiu Vintu (in picture), who controls Realitatea Media group and Ion Ilie Cezar, both accused for having blackmailed Realitatea Media manager Sebastian Ghita, will be taken into custody for 29 days, the Bucharest Court had decided. The court's decision is final.

Sorin Ovidiu Vintu and Ion Ilie Cezar will be held at the Criminal Prosecution Division. The prosecutor explained that Ovidiu Vintu had blackmailed Sebastian Ghita and that through Ilie Ion Cezar he has pressured him. The businessman's purpose was to get a sum of money from Sebastian Ghita and although he was under investigation in another case, he committed a new crime, according to the prosecutors.

Sorin Ovidiu Vintu was detained for 24 hours on April 20 under the charges of blackmailing Sebastian Ghita. According to Ghita, who runs Asesoft, the Realitatea Media management company, Vintu has asked him for EUR 150,000. Otherwise, he threatened to cancel the management contract between Asesoft and Realitatea Media.

This is not the first time Vintu is arrested. In fall last year, he spent a week in jail. Vintu, together with two others, are investigated for helping Nicolae Popa, who has been convicted to jail in the Gelsor – FNI bankruptcy case, but who fled the country to Indonesia, escaping imprisonement.

FNI (Fondul National de Investitii) was a pyramidal (Ponzi) scheme in the late 1990s. The investment fund went bankrupt in 2000, when thousands of people lost their savings deposited in the fund. FNI is a project started out by Sorin Ovidiu Vintu, who never got convicted in direct connection to this case.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com