Prague, June 4 (CTK) – An analysis of the Imoba company indicating that former Czech finance minister Andrej Babis (ANO) committed tax evasion has appeared on the Twitter account, which recently released compromising audio recordings featuring Babis.
Imoba is part of the giant Agrofert concern, including some media outlets, which billionaire businessman Babis owned until February when he transferred it to trust funds to comply with an amended conflict of interest law.
The Twitter account’s name, Julius Suman, refers to former communist secret police (StB) officer who allegedly won Babis over for cooperation under the previous regime, which both deny.
The recent material released on this account, which is allegedly based on data from open sources, concludes that when he headed the Finance Ministry, Babis paid himself more than two billion crowns in various transactions with Imoba and thus deprived the state of some 300 million crown in taxes.
Babis, who was dismissed from the government last week, told CTK that he would not comment on such “nonsense” on this hostile Twitter account.
The document resumes the events around Imoba that operates, for instance, the Capi Hnizdo (Stork Nest) luxurious resort built for Babis. He faces a suspicion of unauthorised drawing of an EU subsidy for this farm.
The document also says Imoba’a shareholder was seated in Zug, Switzerland, which is considered a tax haven, for some time.
An analysis worked out by advisers to Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) in April also criticised Babis for having Imoba seated in Zug. This material made Sobotka propose that Babis be dismissed from the government in May.
Babis wrote to CTK that there was no point in commenting on the nonsense on the hostile Twitter account.
“Agrofert has always been running business in compliance with valid laws and it has paid about 23 billion crowns in taxes and other mandatory payments in the past ten years,” Babis texted to CTK.
On the basis of a reported loss and other data, the analysis says Imoba was a loss-making firm.
“Despite that, the only shareholder of Imoba, Agrofert Holding (respectively its only shareholder Babis) bought other sunscribed shares, this time for eight billion crowns in 2013,” the analysis says.
It calls this purchase an expedient transaction without any economic substantiation after which the firm’s basic capital was 10.432 billion crowns in August 2013.
The document also describes that Agrofert transferred Imoba to Synbiol, another firm that Babis owned then.
“From the viewpoint of Agrofert Holding, this transaction is economically completely nonsensical and it harms the concern. After it provided loans worth billions of crowns and bought worthless shares for ten billion crowns in total, it transfers the firm to another business entity without demanding a corresponding compensation,” the analysis says.
According to the analysis, Imoba paid its only shareholder (Babis) 2.03 billion crowns in October 2014.
“Consequently, Babis paid himself more than two billion crowns. If he had paid the sum as a direct dividend from Agrofert, he would have to pay a 15-percent tax. He thereby deprived the state by at least 300 million crowns,” the document says.
The state could be deprived by more than 1.5 billion crowns in tax from the whole sum for the Imoba shares, it adds.
The Twitter account, which published the Finance Ministry auditors’ report on Capi hnizdo last week, also released some audio recordings with Babis in May.
In the first recording, Babis calls other government members, including Sobotka, his own employees and journalists names, while in the other one, he talked to a reporter of the daily he owned about the publication of some articles discrediting rivals of his ANO movement.
In reaction to this, the Chamber of Deputies adopted a resolution in May saying Babis had publicly lied and abused his media to compromise political opponents.
($1=23.501 crowns)
hol/dr
