Former Mediafax owner, Adrian Sârbu, escapes the tax evasion case in which he was accused of causing a damage of over 4 million euros, after the Bucharest Court of Appeal upheld the decision to return the case to the prosecutor’s office. Meanwhile, the crimes have prescribed, G4Media reports.
The appeal court rejected the appeals and upheld the decision of the Bucharest Tribunal from June 2025, which invalidated the indictment drawn up by the DNA. The decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, pronounced at the beginning of March 2026, is final.
The case returns to the DNA, but without criminal significance
The practical consequence of the decision is that the case returns once again to the prosecutors, but criminal liability cannot be invoked anymore, as the statute of limitations has expired. In the last indictment, dated July 8, 2024, Adrian Sârbu was accused of tax evasion of over 4 million euros within the Mediafax group.
G4Media notes that, according to the reasoning of the Bucharest Tribunal, the crimes from 2014 would have prescribed in 2024. The court held that the statute of limitations, which started on August 11, 2014, was extended by suspending the prescription period during the state of emergency in 2020, so the expiration of the term would not have occurred in August 2024, but in September 2024. However, the indictment had been drawn up on July 8, 2024, before that deadline.
Procedural issue invoked by the court
The Bucharest Tribunal invalidated the case in June 2025 on procedural grounds. Specifically, the court considered that the General Prosecutor's Office did not legally disinvest when sending the case to the DNA. In the reasoning, cited by G4Media, the judges stated that "there is no legal way in which the PÎCCJ disinvested".
This irregularity led to the return of the case, and the Bucharest Court of Appeal subsequently confirmed the decision. As the statute of limitations has meanwhile passed, the case can no longer have criminal effects for Adrian Sârbu.
A case dating back over a decade
The case has a long judicial history. Adrian Sârbu was placed in preventive arrest in February 2015, being released in May of the same year. In April 2016, the General Prosecutor's Office indicted him for tax evasion and money laundering, with an estimated damage at that time of 14 million euros.
After years spent in the preliminary chamber, the High Court of Cassation and Justice decided in August 2020 to return the case to the prosecutor's office, citing procedural issues. Subsequently, the investigation was resumed, and the DNA sent the case back to trial in 2024, but with the damage recalculated to approximately 4 million euros.
According to G4Media, after the closure of the criminal perspective, the state only has the civil route open for the recovery of any potential damage, through the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF).