UPDATE: Media mogul Sorin Ovidiu Vantu has been arrested for 29 days

Newsroom 10/09/2010 | 07:07

UPDATE: The Bucharest Court decided last night that Sorin Ovidiu Vantu, Octavian Turcan and Stoian Alexandru will remain in arrest for 29 days.

Media mogul Sorin Ovidiu Vantu was withheld for 24 hours by the prosecutors of the High Court of Justice, being investigated in relation to the flight out of the country of Nicolae Popa, former manager of Gelsor.

Vantu is charged with helping Popa escape after he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, following his involvement in the FNI scandal, one of the major scams in Romania, in which 300,000 people lost their money.

Vantu was one of several people investigated in this case, alongside Liviu Luca, president of the Petrom Free Unions Federation,Alex Stoian, Vantu’s driver, and Octavian Turcan, a citizen from the Moldova Republic.

Vantu (54) is suspected that he asked Turcan, who is said to be one of his most trusted people, to transfer money in Indonesia to Popa (45). The former manager of Gelsor fled the country in 2000 and was captured in Indonesia, currently facing extradition which was asked by the Romanian authorities.

When he was taken out of the court building and into the police van, Vantu said that he would like to see president Traian Basescu in his shoes when he finally loses a battle.