Prague, April 27 (CTK) – Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis’s (ANO) business activities and property situation remain insufficiently explained and provoke doubts, according to an analysis PM Bohuslav Sobotka’s advisers have completed at his request.
The document deals with cases such as Babis’s purchase of one-crown bonds, the subsidies drawn by his Stork Nest company and the way Babis acquired the Agrofert company.
The Babis-related cases include a number of opaque circumstances and raise numerous doubts, the document says.
It sums up the situation in the form of 22 questions.
The 40-page analysis mostly cites media reports about individual cases.
Apart from the controversial issuance of untaxed one-crown bonds by Babis’s Agrofert in 2012 and their subsequent purchase by Babis, the analysis mentions his deals with the Profrost and Afeed firms, the Hartenberg fund and the Imoba company.
Citing the media, it points at suspicious practices allegedly pursued by Babis’s firms.
The case of one-crown bonds provokes the questions of why Agrofert did not offer its bonds to other buyers than Babis, and what it was good for to issue bonds with a 6-percent interest at a time when banks loaned money more cheaply.
In addition, it is not sure that the Financial Administration, a body controlled by Babis’s ministry, will check all issuers of one-crown bonds in accordance with his promise on Wednesday.
The analysis once again casts doubts on the proportion between Babis’s incomes and spending.
“Was the sum of 2.4 billion crowns, which Andrej Babis legally earned from 1996 to 2004, according to auditors, enough to cover all his investments then and spending on his expensive life style?” the authors ask.
They also challenge the way Babis acquired Agrofert, a giant chemical, food, agriculture and media holding which he owned until recently.
“Where did he gain money for the acquisition if he declared 8.3 million crowns as his net income before 2000?” they ask.
The analysis challenges Babis’s assertion that he does not use any firms in tax havens.
Is this true in a situation where “one of his key firms, Imoba, was for a long time seated in Zug, Switzerland, which ranks among tax havens?” the document asks.
It says Babis used another firm, Cyprus-based Romneya, to take over the U Rytiru company.
($1=24.735 crowns)
