The High Public Prosecutor’s Office in Prague has confirmed that police are investigating the sale of Jáchymov radon spa by the Penta Group to entrepreneur Martin Burda — because any transfer of shares in the unique spa was suspended after the collapse of brokerage KTP Quantum in 2002. Penta, which was holding the shares in the spa as collateral, claims it has merely sold the company — but not the shares.
“At present, intensive work on the investigation is continuing,” a spokeswoman for the public prosecution service in Prague, Irena Válová, told the server aktualne.cz on Monday, without revealing more details, such as when the investigation was launched.
Penta — one of the largest Czech and Slovak Investment firms — sold Lázně Jáchymov to Burda in December 2010 for just under Kč 700 million. Both parties claim the transaction is in line with the law. “The sale of the company has not affected the value of the shares blocked by the state prosecutor, let alone the actual suspension [of the transaction],” Burda, told aktualne.cz. “I don’t see any reason why the sale of the business should be challenged by the authorities.”
Penta claims it has transferred the money from the sale to the account of Lázně Jáchymov where it will remain until the shares are unblocked. “Because the legal disputes are not over, Penta has not cashed in its share of the sale price,” Penta spokesman Martin Danko said.
The former head of KTP Quantum, Karel Takáč, claims to this day that Penta Investments intended to wrestle control of Jáchymov spa when it provided KTP Quantum a loan of Kč 80 million back in 2000.
“When we signed the loan agreement, I believed that it was a standard operation. Only when I wanted to pay off the loan early and Penta refused settlement through the capital market and insisted on cash payment to the company’s headquarters in Cyprus with a pledge that it would then return the shares, did I realize what the intention was,” Takáč told aktualne.cz.
Police launched an investigation into Penta Investments’ boss, Marek Dospiva, over the acquisition of Jachýmov at the price well below the famous spa’s value and concluded that Penta had access to unpublished information and knew full well that Takáč’s KTP Quantum was in no position to pay back the debt which Penta extended with the spa as collateral. The prosecution service, however, rejected the case in 2005.
Some 10,000 small private investors lost money when KTP Quantum collapsed back in 2002. In 2010, however, the state prosecution service dropped criminal charges of damage to assets of private individuals against Takáč.
There is still a possibility that a court could order the shares in Lázně Jáchymov to be sold to pay compensation to the plaintiffs in the KTP Quantum case. This begs the question as to what guarantees Penta has provided to Burda; Czech Position is waiting for Penta to respond to queries on this.
Situated in an area with large uranium deposits in the north-west of the country, the Jachýmov spa was the first radon spa in the world.
