Representatives of the Prague 6 administration gave positive references about the Key Investments brokerage in which the administrations of Prague 6, 10 and 13 have around Kč 650 million of public funds tied up in portfolios with largely non-liquid assets.
Key investments has bought non-liquid bonds and shares of the companies Via Chem Group, E Side Properties (official owner of Slavia Prague’s new stadium), and the company Sincom (now Orsay) for the portfolios it manages for the three Prague districts.
The brokerage is currently under investigation by the anti-corruption police following a criminal complaint from the mining company Sokolovská uhelná, which got back less than 10 percent of its initial investment when it decided to wind up its portfolio. The financialThe district administrations are now desperately seeking a way to get the public funds back from the brokerage. market regulators from the Czech National Bank (ČNB) are investigating Key Investments for the third time.
As reported earlier by Czech Position, the heads of the Prague 6, 10 and 13 administrations do not seem to know who controls Key Investments. According to our sources, the administrations are now desperately seeking a way to get the public funds back from the brokerage.
According to a document obtained by Czech Position (see photograph), last October first deputy mayor of Prague 6 Jiří Fárek informed the director of Key Investments Daniel Brzkovský that “the city district of Prague 6 has provided positive references for the company Key Investments.”
The information is contained in the minutes of a meeting between Prague 6 representatives led by Fárek, and Brzkovský on October 6. The minutes were documented by Mrs. Hvězdová, an administrator, and signed by Fárek and Brzkovský.
On the basis of this document, Czech Position wanted to ascertain to whom exactly Prague 6 had provided positive references about Key Investments. The reply we received from Petr Ayeboua (ODS), deputy mayor of Prague 6 and right-hand man of the former mayor of the district, Tomáš Chalupa (ODS), was shocking: “The district of Prague 6 has at no time in the past given any reference for the asset manager in question.”
Ayeboua took two weeks to respond to Czech Position’s question about the references – plenty of time to ask his colleague Fárek for details about the references.
It is obvious that either current deputy mayor Ayeboua or Fárek is lying; probably Ayeboua. The record of the aforementioned meeting clearly shows that according to Fárek, Prague 6 provided entities with positive references about Key Investments. Why would Fárek, an economics professor, make this up? When Czech Position asked Ayeboua why his response directly contradicts the official records of the Prague 6 administration, the deputy mayor did not reply.
Jiří Fárek also did not respond to our enquiry about the recommendation.
All previous articles on the Key Investments case are available here.
