The Bucharest Appeals Court rejected on Monday a prosecutors' appeal against a Bucharest Tribunal ruling to keep Rompetrol head Dinu Patriciu at large for an investigation regarding his involvement in alleged embezzlement and stock exchange abuses.

That means Dinu Patriciu will stay free. Following the announcement of the verdict, he welcomed the decision ans said "taxpayers' money shouldn't be spent in the investigation of innocent people".

The request for preventive arrest warrant on Dinu Patriciu’s name has been rejected several times.

The Romanian Public Ministry requested the Tribunal February 16 to issue preventive arrest warrants on Dinu Patriciu and two of his business partners – Philip Stephenson and Colin Hart. All three are suspected of a series of economic crimes including the creation of an organized crime group.

A Romanian appeals court annulled on April 3 the Bucharest Tribunal’s decision to investigate Rompetrol managers Philip Stephenson and Colin Hart at large, for their involvement in a series of alleged crimes at Romania’s second biggest oil company. The Tribunal will judge anew the prosecutors’ request of arresting the two defendants.