The Romanian media entrepreneur Adrian Sarbu has been detained for 24 hours on charges of tax evasion, money laundering and embezzlement.
According to HotNews, the charges relate to a major tax evasion case involving Mediafax Group, the company Sarbu owns.
It adds that Sarbu rejects the charges, claiming that Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the politician and businessman Sebastian Ghita have fabricated them against him.
Sarbu has played a prominent role in the Romanian TV industry for over two decades.
He launched Pro TV, the country’s leading broadcaster, in 1995 and went on to head Central European Media Enterprises (CME), Pro TV’s owner, from 2009-2013.
In a statement published by Mediafax, Sarbu claimed that the case against him and Mediafax was aimed at destroying the media institutions he had built over the last 25 years.