Ostrava, North Moravia, Oct 19 (CTK) – The Czech FAU firm that ended insolvent and bankrupt after the Financial Administration’s (FS) intervention last year, has filed a criminal complaint on suspicion that the FS’s decision to freeze its property was initiated by someone outside the FS, FAU’s Alfred Sramek told CTK on Thursday.
He said evidence seems to point at Andrej Babis, head of the government ANO movement and former finance minister from 2014 to May 2017.
FAU owns a fuel storage facility in the compound of the Precheza company in Prerov, north Moravia, which is part of Agrofert, a chemical and food giant holding which Babis owned before transferring it to a trust fund in compliance with the new conflict of interest law in February.
The FS, an independent body falling under the Finance Ministry, says it issued the property freezing order to secure a part of a tax FAU had failed to pay.
In this connection, the FS suspects FAU of being involved in a carousel fraud, which FAU has dismissed.
At the end of August, an audio recordings appeared on the Internet showing Babis, the finance minister, referring to FAU, calling it bothersome and saying “our people cracked down on FAU.”
Babis subsequently dismissed having misused or tasked the FS. FS head Martin Janecek rejected the accusation as well.
Sramek told CTK that the timing and circumstances of the FS’s intervention against FAU raised suspicions and that it is up to the police to check whether the FS acted on someone else’s order.
FAU previously lodged 13 lawsuits against various state bodies in connection with the case. Courts have already decided on four, complying with two and rejecting two.
