Amnestie Václava Klause popáté

The Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK) has released the fifth part of a study containing basic facts and quotes from the rulings of selected courts and public prosecutors, concerning the application of Article II of the amnesty declared by Václav Klaus in 2013. This part highlights the rulings passed by the regional public prosecutors and courts in Prague and České Budějovice.

Criminal activities of the prosecuted (and amnestied) persons classically encompasses “standard” offences, including fraud, embezzlement, evasion of taxes, charges and other mandatory payments, plotting to engage in criminal activities, and the abuse of official powers, robbery notwithstanding. The financial damage identified by the said rulings amounts to almost 580 million CZK, whereas additional damage, which would have exceeded 220 million CZK, was averted.

The rulings enlist cases of fictitious invoices, acquisition of goods without payments, and siphoning off corporate assets to related companies. In one case, a police inspector, ostensibly tasked to work on a criminal case, rewrote reference numbers, altered dates, and produced fictitious files. For that, he was financially rewarded as a model official… In another instance, fictitious contracts were signed concerning cooperation, management and consulting jobs, which would have helped companies to cut their tax expenses. Said a judge in 2006: “Greedy so-called entrepreneurs trusted the enlightened nature of a Belgian peddling rabbits and the renown of a world-famous computer firm, and struck a deal with him to get money cheap. You’ll give us three hundred thousand and we’ll invoice two million, and the taxman will refurbish us. They plotted how to cheat the state so they could hold it against him that he’s penniless…” (Source: Českobudějovický deník. 122 defendants, will only one of them be sentenced? 21. 9. 2006)

However, the most famous scam involves the insolvency sharks around Justice Jiří Berka, where a group of persons engaged in a collusion with the intention of taking money away from companies. The group’s core members were a judge, an insolvency administrator, a company manager, an official in charge of winding up the firm, and a court expert. “Elite” characters, one and all. By manipulating wind-up procedures they wrought damage exceeding 260 million CZK, while an additional damage over 200 million CZK was prevented. The High Court in Olomouc later abrogated some parts of the defendants’ amnesty decrees. The Supreme Court was brought to bear.

It should be noted that as indicated by the rulings, obtained from the regional and high courts and public prosecutors nationwide, the defendants whose prosecution was halted were thought to have caused damages amounting to at least 18.6 billion crowns, with additional damages to the tune of at least 3.4 billion crowns being averted. Damages were said to have been incurred on over 90,000 natural persons and hundreds of legal entities.

We must add, in conclusion, that the Anticorruption Endowment Board of Directors decided to release the full names of the prosecuted and amnestied persons wherever they could be asserted after the fact.

The Anticorruption Endowment is a fully independent initiative by people radically unprepared to accept a high level of corruption in state administration. One of our goals is to help expose corruption in state administration and support projects exposing corruption.

Enclosures – Ruling on the halting of criminal proceedings under Article II of President Václav Klaus’s amnesty, decreed on 1 January 2013:

Please contact: Martin Soukenka, NFPK Analyst, e-mail: martin.soukenka@nfpk.cz