Romanian Media Owner Sorin Ovidiu Vintu Arrested For Blackmail

Romanian businessman Sorin Ovidiu Vintu and his employee, Ion Ilie Cezar, accused of blackmailing the manager of TV station Realitatea Media, Sebastian Ghita, will be placed under 29-day preventive arrest, the Bucharest Court ruled Friday.

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The ruling is final.

A lower court ruled last week the two were to be investigated at large.

Vintu and Cezar had been detained for 24 hours on April 20.

Prosecutors said in a press release that, according to the evidence so far, in March-April 2011, Vintu demanded EUR150,000 from Ghita, who "would stand to lose significant amounts of money" should he refuse. Ghita filed a complaint accusing Vintu of threats and blackmail.

Vintu owns Realitatea-Catavencu, a group of media companies which includes Realitatea Media. Ghita owns the Asesoft IT group, which in October last year took over the management of Realitatea Media.

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