Final Word from Thursday, April 6, 2006
The police seized two companies in late March owned by escaped businessman Radovan Krejčíř. Most of his other assets had already been seized, but the prosecutor feared the companies might be sold before Krejčíř paid the damages he caused at Čepro in a fraud scheme. You might think the Kč 3-5bn taken from Krejčíř's Prague villa would cover any losses, but that amount fell to Kč 50m and then to Kč 9.5m as the police took a closer look. The rest was counterfeit, according to Interior Minister František Bublan. So where was the fake money when the Czech National Bank issued its report on counterfeiting in 2005? In the entire country, only Kč 10.8m in counterfeit money was seized last year. Officially, Krejčíř's bills were basically Mickey Mouse money and barely warranted a mention in the CNB report. Unofficially, we might never know the full truth about Krejčíř's billions. [Czech Republic Monopoly central bank counterfeiting]