Tech Firm MediaPro investigated in Money Laundering Inquiry

January 2015 saw twenty four board directors of MediaPro, Romania arrested on suspicion of

tax evasion and money laundering, while major shareholder and billionaire heir to the Este

Lauder fortune, Ronald S Lauder was not arrested.

MediaPro are Romanias biggest Media Company and one of the rising Tech stars in Eastern

Europe. From humble beginnings in the 1950s this firm is now responsible for a great deal of

the movie output of the entire country and have a string of successful movie releases behind

them.

According to Romanian investigator show ever the information they are working on is that from

2009 to 2014 the board of MediaPro was responsible for hiding cash through fictitious invoices,

a large proportion of which was transferred to an unnamed organiser of the money laundering

scheme.

Strong allegations against this Tech giant and of course this sort of allegation would need to be

proven in court which is likely to be a very lengthy process. Investigators however are

convinced that they will be able to amass enough evidence to bring the case to trial in the near

future.

Meanwhile the head of the company, Ronald Lauder, has remained the major shareholder of

the company, despite resigning from the board in March 2014. This came shortly after the

departure of his long-term business partner Adrian Srbu, who was placed under arrest by

Romanian police on 3 February 2015.

Mr. Lauder has a $3.9 billion fortune based around his ownership of over thirty other Tech

companies in Europe and a fortune acquired by his parents who set up leading cosmetics brand

Este Lauder. He is a well-known businessman in Jewish communities; particularly for his

philanthropic work however this does not stop him having critics.

Public record shows that Mr. Lauder withdrew tens of millions of dollars from the company in

2014, causing widespread outrage among the Romanian public and media. Ironically as

MediaPro are massively influential in Romania, particularly with the press, the story is largely

going unnoticed by many in the country. Despite so much of this appearing in the public

domain the reports about it are few and far between.

Investigators are keen to understand all the people who were involved in this alleged money

laundering operation and Romanian authorities are still pursuing the investigation. In January

they arranged for the continuing detention of eleven Company executives implicated in this

case.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-tale-of-business-and-jewish-life/http://business-review.eu/featured/the-court-prolongs-arrest-for-people-involved-in-mediapro-and-mediafax-files-75047

Naturally this is a huge concern to the employees of this company and has sent shockwaves

through the media and tech sectors in Romania. This story has a lot more to play out before

investigators bring it to court and we get to hear the true facts of the case.