Prague, Aug 16 (CTK) – Several transfers of shares were made around the farm Capi hnizdo, owned by the former concern of Andrej Babis (ANO), leader of the government ANO, in order to cover up its ownership structure and to enable the Czech company to be eligible for a European subsidy, the server iROZHLAS.cz says.
The server refers to the sources knowledgeable of the police request to have Babis and ANO deputy Jaroslav Faltynek released for prosecution lodged with the Chamber of Deputies.
Martin Herodes, a brother-in-law of the ANO leader, media and food mogul and former finance minister, Babis, made the crucial transaction with the shares, the server writes.
Faltynek and Babis have faced a legal complaint in the Capi hnizdo case since 2015.
Until 2007, the Farma Capi hnizdo (Stork’s Nest) company belonged to Babis’s Agrofert Holding. Afterwards, its stake was transferred to bearer shares for a small firm to reach a 50-million-crown EU subsidy, which a firm of the huge Agrofert Holding could never get. It observed this condition for a few years, but later it again returned to Babis’s concern.
Billionaire businessman Babis transferred the Agrofert concern, including some media outlets, to trust funds in February to comply with an amended conflict of interest law.
Babis said at a special lower house session initiated by the opposition that his adult children and a brother of his common-law wife (whom he married recently) owned the bearer shares of the farm in 2008-2010 when the firm gained the subsidy.
Herodes reportedly signed three contracts on the purchase of some shares with Babis’s relatives who held it after the firm was transferred from Agrofert.
Thanks to this, he became the majority shareholder of Capi hnizdo.
“Herodes made the expedient transfer quite consciously in order to confuse the ownership structure of the Farma Capi hnizdo company,” the police request said.
“The fictitious transfers of the shares followed the only objective of another covering up of the identity of the real owner and person with the influence on the company, Babis,” it added.
The transactions were also to lower the shares of Babis’s relatives under one-quarter of the firm’s basic capital.
Babis has denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the latest police request as the efforts of the political system to destroy his career.
The Chamber of Deputies mandate and immunity committee will start dealing with the request on Friday and the whole lower house is to decide on it at its session to start on September 5.
The prosecution of an MP requires the consent of the parliamentary house of which they are members. If either the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate denies the consent, the prosecution is impossible throughout the duration of the mandate. The police can possibly accuse them after the mandate expires.
