Prague, Sept 23 (CTK) – The Prague Municipal Court found Radek Mueller guilty of money laundering over his role in the case of an overpriced state order placed with Promopro during the Czech Republic’s EU presidency in 2009, court spokeswoman Marketa Puci told CTK Wednesday.
Under the ruling that can be still appealed, Mueller was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison and banned from running private business for seven years, Puci said.
Promopro was given the lucrative order for its audiovisual services during the Czech EU presidency without any public tender in 2008.
In June, a court punished another seven defendants in the Promopro case, six of whom were meted out five to nine-year prison terms.
Jaroslav Vesely and Vlastimil Maxa, executive of the main subcontractor, received the highest sentence of nine years in prison each for fraud and money laundering.
According to the verdict, Vesely and Maxa submitted false invoices for the services that were never carried out or were not connected with the conferences during the EU presidency.
According to the indictment, Mueller agreed with Maxa and was submitting invoices from his firms StavBand and Commercia within a money-laundering scheme.
The state as the damaged party had put the damage caused by the criminal activities at 938 million crowns.
The court also acquitted three former senior officials from the Czech EU presidency section of charges.
