Final Word from Monday, October 14, 2013
At the beginning of the MUS fraud was an illegal scheme to use related entities to buy up the 49% of the mining company originally held by the so-called DIKs, the coupon-privatization investors. Roman Češka, who ran the National Property Fund, told LN that it was illegal because the buyers failed to meet the disclosure requirement at 10%, 20%, 30%, etc. They concealed the information in order to lower the price they had to pay for a controlling stake. Now that the ringleader of the fraud, Antonín Koláček, has been found guilty, his Buddhist soul seems less concerned about going to prison than about the idea that Pavel Tykač of MUS's successor company, Czech Coal Services, should get some of the Kč 14bn frozen by Switzerland. If anyone should get the money, he told MFD, it should be the CR, and not Switzerland or Tykač. Perhaps the best way to ensure that Tykač gets as little as possible would be for Koláček to start pleading the case for returning 49% of the money to the people he and his accomplices initially defrauded - the simple DIKs. [Czech Republic DIK držitel investičních kuponů NPF Lidové noviny MF Dnes Mostecká uhelná spol.]
Glossary of difficult words
DIK - držitel investičních kuponů (holder of investment coupons/vouchers);
disclosure - the act of revealing information;
ringleader - a person who initiates or leads an illicit or illegal activity;
to plead - to present and argue for a position, esp. in court or in another public context.