Prague, Feb 10 (CTK) – A Prague court acquitted lobbyist Ivo Rittig and his lawyers of charges of unlawful siphoning off assets from the Oleo Chemical company on Friday, but imposed sentences on the firm’s former owners and a trade partner of Rittig.
The verdict has not yet taken effect.
The trial did not prove that the crime was committed by Rittig and his lawyers, but the other suspects were found guilty, the judge said.
Oleo Chemical’s former owner Michal Urbanek was sentenced to three years in prison and banned from business activities for five years.
Peter Kmet, owner of the Cokeville Assets firm and a trade partner of Rittig, also received a three-year prison sentence and a fine of one million crowns.
The firm’s other owner, Kamil Jirounek, was recently sentenced to six years in prison for a counterfeit bill of exchange, which is why the court refrained from punishing him in the Oleo case.
Radomir Kucera, the firm’s former director in charge of production, received a suspended sentence.
The court found the four guilty of breach of trust, and Urbanek and Jirounek also of tax evasion. They caused damage of almost 20 million crowns to Oleo Chemical shareholders.
“We did not believe that Cokeville Assets provided consulting services to Oleo Chemical. Surprisingly, there exists not a single document to prove the existence of the consulting services that lasted three years and allegedly resulted in crucial steps taken by the Oleo Chemical company,” judge Katerina Radkovska said.
The state attorney unsuccessfully tried to prove that money from Oleo Chemical went to Rittig via Cokeville Assets, Kmet’s firm based in the Caribbean.
Rittig refused any links between him and Cokeville Assets and said he had never received money from Oleo Chemical.
The attorney proposed five years in prison for Rittig and most other suspects for tax evasion, embezzlement and money laundering.
He indicated that the influence Rittig had on companies such as the Prague Public Transport Company (DPP), where he could ensure contracts for Oleo, might have been Oleo’s motive to unlawfully send money to him.
The case was investigated by the police anti-mafia squad (UOOZ), which merged with the anti-corruption unit within a controversial police shakeup last year.
