Ruzicka gets eleven years in prison
The most spectacular court case in the German advertising industry has come to an end—for now: Former Aegis Media CEO Aleksander Ruzicka has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for embezzlement.
Former Aegis Media boss Aleksander Ruzicka received the long-awaited verdict at Wiesbaden District Court on Tuesday. According to the verdict, the 48-year-old must serve eleven years in prison. The co-defendant and former Aegis Media manager David Linn received a two-year conditional sentence.
Ruzicka has been found guilty by the court of having embezzled around 37 million euros from the company Aegis Media. Apparently, he had advertisers pay him for the airtime that had been granted to Aegis Media by TV marketers as discounts in kind. However, he claimed until the last day of the trial that he had done all this for the benefit of Aegis Media. Linn's verdict was aiding and abetting by omission; however, the court did not consider him to have contributed to the crime himself or to have intended to do so.
The verdict brings one of the biggest scandals in the German advertising industry to an end for the time being. It was preceded by almost one and a half years of proceedings with 64 trial days. Ruzicka has been in custody since the end of October 2006 and was not released early due to the high sentence expected. It is not yet known whether he will appeal the verdict.
The German industry portals Horizont.net, Wundv.de and Kress.de reported extensively on the trial. Werben & Verkaufen (Wundv.de) even had a journalist report in real time tweet from the courtroom.
(Photo: Ruzicka in the courtroom on 12.5.2009 / Horizont.net)
Ruzicka has been found guilty by the court of having embezzled around 37 million euros from the company Aegis Media. Apparently, he had advertisers pay him for the airtime that had been granted to Aegis Media by TV marketers as discounts in kind. However, he claimed until the last day of the trial that he had done all this for the benefit of Aegis Media. Linn's verdict was aiding and abetting by omission; however, the court did not consider him to have contributed to the crime himself or to have intended to do so.
The verdict brings one of the biggest scandals in the German advertising industry to an end for the time being. It was preceded by almost one and a half years of proceedings with 64 trial days. Ruzicka has been in custody since the end of October 2006 and was not released early due to the high sentence expected. It is not yet known whether he will appeal the verdict.
The German industry portals Horizont.net, Wundv.de and Kress.de reported extensively on the trial. Werben & Verkaufen (Wundv.de) even had a journalist report in real time tweet from the courtroom.
(Photo: Ruzicka in the courtroom on 12.5.2009 / Horizont.net)
