Czech police ask for Prime Minister to be charged with fraud
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Posted On June 6, 2021
The prison unit of the Financial Crime Division of the Prague Police has concluded its investigation into the case — often known as “Stork’s Nest” — the assertion mentioned.
A spokesperson for the Prague Public Prosecutor’s Workplace mentioned Monday that the workplace had obtained the movement to indict two individuals in addition to the investigative file for the case, which it mentioned contained 34,000 pages.
“The Public Prosecutor will now assessment the information and resolve whether or not to proceed with the indictment, dismiss the costs, or discover a completely different resolution,” Aleš Cimbala mentioned within the assertion.
The Czech authorities’ press workplace didn’t reply to CNN’s request for a remark. In an announcement to CTK, the Czech state information company, Babis dismissed the investigation as politically motivated and mentioned: “nothing unlawful has ever occurred.”
The case is called after the Stork’s Nest leisure complicated that’s on the coronary heart of the alleged subsidy fraud. Half farm, half convention heart with a lodge and sports activities amenities, the Stork’s Nest resort obtained EU funding supposed for small and medium companies between 2007 and 2013, in keeping with its present proprietor, an organization known as IMOBA, which is a part of Babis’ agricultural enterprise empire Agrofert.
The investigation focuses on the possession of the complicated, attempting to determine whether or not it was eligible for the funding.
The property had, prior to now, been part of Agrofert earlier than being spun off right into a separate firm. It later grew to become a part of the Agrofert holding once more, public information present.
The EU’s anti-fraud workplace OLAF has mentioned prior to now that its investigation discovered “irregularities” in subsidy funds for the property, in keeping with a 2018 assertion by the Czech Finance Ministry.
Police first requested for Babis to be charged within the case in 2019, however, the case was dropped by the prosecutor. That call was later overturned by the nation’s Prosecutor Common Pavel Zeman who mentioned the transfer to drop the case was untimely.
Babis rejected the findings, saying the audit was “manipulated and artificially induced by skilled snitches” from the ranks of opposition events.
Tomas Etzler in Prague contributed reporting.
