Five persons were arrested on suspicion of abuse of power. According to the National Anticorruption Center, the managers of a tobacco factory sold tobacco articles of different brands at a lower price than the one set by law, IPN reports.

Prosecutors established that the selling price was by up to 5 lei lower than the limit for cigarettes without filter and by up to 9 lei lower than the limit for filter cigarettes. The sold cigarettes had the production date in July – December 2016, which is before the new provisions of the tobacco law took effect.

Decision makers of the factory intentionally used the posts held and the company’s property and defrauded the state budget by including incorrect data about revenues and costs in accounting, fiscal and financial documents, hiding taxable incomes and laundering the ill-gotten gains.

The five persons arrested include the founder and manager of the tobacco factory, the person who managed this from behind, two employees and the founder and manager of the limited liability company to which the factory sold products at lower prices.

The culprits face two to six years in jail or a fine of up to 117,500 lei over abuse of power. In both of the cases, these will be banned from holding particular posts or performing particular activities for two to five years.