Romanian fashion designer Adina Buzatu has been charged with tax evasion and money laundering and placed under judicial control on bail. She has to pay RON 300,000 (EUR 67,000) to stay out of arrest.

The prosecutors attached to the Court of appeal in Ploiesti questioned Adina Buzatu yesterday in a tax evasion case in which the state took a RON 38 million (EUR 8.5 million) damage, reports local Mediafax.

Some 26 people were heard by the prosecutors yesterday while the investigators also carried out 34 searches in Bucharest, Prahova, Iasi, Suceava, and Ilfov, at the suspects’ homes and at several firms’ headquarters. Several other people have been charged with tax evasion and placed under judicial control on bail.

The prosecutors believe that the suspects created a fictitious fiscal circuit between 2012 and 2014 to reduce the taxes owed to the state (tax on profit and VAT). They allegedly used 20 ghost firms to invoice fictitious acquisitions and withdraw cash from their main companies.

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