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Beny Steinmetz sentenced to five years in bribery scandal
Diamond mogul is silent New York real estate backer, involved with HFZ New York / TRD Staff
Beny Steinmetz (Getty)
Romania’s Supreme Court has handed down a five-year sentence to billionaire Beny Steinmetz, a reported silent backer of New York real estate.
The decision overturns a lower court’s June 2019 decision to acquit Steinmetz and partner Tal Silberstein, a media consultant.
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The higher court ruled that the pair collaborated with a Romanian businessman and the grandson of the country’s former king in an attempt to defraud the state, Haaretz first reported.
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The Romanian businessman, Remus Truica, who formerly served as bureau chief to Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, was sentenced to seven years in jail – almost double the four-year sentenced imposed by the lower court. He was convicted of abusing the country’s process for restituting property confiscated during the Communist era in order to illegally obtain state assets worth 145 million euros.
Prince Paul-Philippe, the grandson of King Carol II, was sentenced to three years and four months, slightly more than the three-year sentence imposed by the lower court.
The Supreme Court also decided to confiscate 370,000 square meters of land owned by Truica’s Reciplia company and another 141,000 square meters of land owned by Truica personally. The prince was ordered to pay a four million euro fine, similar to the one imposed by the lower court.
Tal Silberstein, seen at Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, on August 14, 2017. (Flash90)
The former royal family was forced into exile in 1947 and its properties were confiscated.
Paul has lived in Bucharest since the 1990s but was never recognized as crown prince by the last king Michel who died in 2017.
That meant Paul was not the rightful heir even if properties were returned to the former royal family.
Steinmetz and Silberstein were initially acquitted by a lower court last year.
They were arrested in Israel in 2017 as part of an international investigation into money-laundering.
Steinmetz is also to face trial in Geneva next month for alleged corruption linked to mining deals in Guinea.
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A Romanian court on Thursday sentenced French-Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz and political adviser Tal Silberstein in absentia to five years in jail each in an organised crime case.
The two Israelis were found guilty of the creation of an organised criminal group in a property-related case that dates back to 2006-2008 and cost the Romanian state $145 million.
Romanian businessman Remus Truica received a heavier sentence, seven years in jail, while a member of the former Romanian royal family, Prince Paul, was given three years and four months.
According to the prosecutor, the two Israelis and their Romanian associate bribed public officials to recover property fraudulently claimed by Prince Paul.