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| Francesco Becchetti as he talks to his lawyer, October 2015 |
After more than 6 years of delays, the Tirana Court sentenced today to 17 years in prison the Italian entrepreneur Francesco Becchetti, owner of Agon Channel television, which was closed, after the investigations that the Albanian prosecution conducted against him in 2015. Except for Becchetti, sentences were also given to some of his collaborators, Italians, and Albanians.
The court found today the Italian entrepreneur guilty of all four charges filed by the Prosecution, from forgery of documents to theft by abuse of office, tax evasion, and money laundering. The Italian entrepreneur had several companies in Albania, through which, according to prosecutors, he had set up a fraud scheme, profiting 38 million euros, while another 5 million euros are calculated as tax evasion.
Becchetti has always stated that the investigations and the process against him have had a political background" due to the critical attitudes" that Agon Channel television has had towards the Albanian government. Exactly the closure of Agon Channel, led to the sentencing of the Albanian state, in April last year, with 110 million euros by the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) an arbitration court, part of the World Bank.