Pátek 29. března 2024, svátek má Taťána
130 let

Lidovky.cz

Thrilling courtroom drama awaits Čepro in spring

  19:12

Three separate but related suits against state-run Čepro will soon be heard in court action; all are tied to an old customs swindle

V kauzách proti státní společnosti Čepro stopy vedou k uprchlému podnikateli Radovanu Krejčířovi. foto: © ČESKÁ POZICEČeská pozice

For nearly a decade now, Czech state-run pipeline and storage operator Čepro has faced lawsuits seeking multibillion-crown settlements. The plaintiffs in three separate cases are Tukový průmysl, Venturon Investment and M-Port; all the charges trace back to fugitive businessman Radovan Krejčíř, and so far, not one of these cases has been legally concluded.

In the next six weeks, all three cases should be moved forward. On March 2, proceedings were held at the Municipal Court in Prague in the Tukový průmysl case; on March 17 the M-Port case will be heard at the High Court in Prague; and on April 13, the Municipal Court in Prague will start dealing with the Venturon case.

Tukový průmysl is claiming Kč 75 million from Čepro, M-Port is seeking Kč 348 million and Venturon Investment (through its legal representative Global Licence and Service Establishment) claims Kč 2.6 billion. The origin of the plaintiffs’ claims against Čepro and the manner of exercising them clearly have a criminal basis.

The origin of the plaintiffs’ claims against Čepro and the manner of exercising them clearly have a criminal basis, which rests on Čepro’s alleged tax evasions and fraud. The trail leads to fugitive business man Radovan Krejčíř, who was sentenced in absentia to six and a half years for tax fraud and is currently in South Africa fighting extradition. Krejčíř is alleged to be behind Lichtenstein-registered Global Licence, one of the current plaintiffs seeking money from Čepro.

Krejčíř has a long involvement with Čepro. In newspaper stories from South Africa, Krejčíř says that he loaned money to former Social Democrat (ČSSD) leader Stanislav Gross during his 2002 bid to become prime minister. After Gross assumed the post, Krejčíř claimed that Gross reneged on a promise to turn over control of Čepro to him — and hit him with false criminal charges in an attempt to get back incriminating loan documents.

According to Czech Position’s information, however, the “ice is on the move” and those accused of tax evasion from Tukový průmysl and Bena (another important player) are familiarizing themselves with the case. It indicates that the police have completed their investigation and that the file could soon go to the court.

In the criminal case of attempted fraud by Čepro, the police have been waiting for several years for legal help from abroad, which is why the investigation is unlikely to close in the foreseeable future.

From tax evasion to fictive debts

The complicated case, which resulted in a lawsuit against Čepro, started in the 1990s. At the time, Tukový průmysl operated as a public customs warehouse where Bena stored fuels imported from abroad. In reality, the fuels were stored in Čepro’s warehouses, because, in essence, Tukový průmysl didn’t have any storage capacity.

Fuels in a public customs warehouse were exempt from customs and consumer tax, as these were paid after clearance and being released onto the market. On paper, Bena still had its diesel in Tukový průmysl’s public customs warehouse; in reality, it took it out of Čepro’s warehouses and sold it. In this way Bena managed to avoid paying the state just under Kč 3 billion in tax. It was clear to the heads of Bena and Tukový průmysl that the cat would soon be out of the bag.

When the legislation changed in 2002, eliminating public customs warehouses, it was clear to the heads of Bena and Tukový průmysl that the cat would soon be out of the bag. On paper, Bena should have had roughly 210,000 tons of fuel in the public customs warehouse; in reality it had hardly any. So much diesel and gasoline could not really have been stored there as this volume was far greater than that of the tanks where Bena was meant to have stored its fuel, at least according to Tukový průmysl, as the customs agent and the operator of the public customs warehouse.

Tukový průmysl pretended that it wasn’t aware that Bena had taken out and sold the diesel without customs clearance and paying tax. However, it still told the customs authorities that Bena’s fuel (in the order of hundreds of thousands of tons) was stored in a specific warehouse at Čepro, even though it didn’t have the capacity.

Bena then found a client to sell the 210,000 tons of fuel to. This was just on paper, as the real fuel had been sold off ages ago, without tax. That patsy was Venturon Investment, which then began to demand Čepro give them the 210,000 tons of diesel they had bought from Bena. The M-Port case is similar although M-Port purchased a smaller amount.

Verdicts with elements of arbitrariness

All of Venturon Investment’s fictive claims could quickly and easily have been swept off the table. Čepro could have simply demonstrated to the court that Bena had hardly any stored diesel or gasoline because it had gradually taken it away in previous years. But a disloyal employee in the file room of Čepro allegedly destroyed Venturon’s complaint along with other court summonses. Some of the papers were sought during a 2005 search of Krejčíř’s villa. Čepro could not defend itself because it didn’t know about the ongoing dispute.

Thus Čepro didn’t know about the court proceedings and did not show up. David Hovorka, the judge at the Municipal Court in Prague, recognized the validity of the Kč 2.6 billion claim against Čepro, since no company representative were there to make objections. Judge Hovorka didn’t make the effort to ascertain why the defendant didn’t turn up. Control of this claim has now been transferred to Golden Licence.

Čepro, which administers an important part of state fuel reserves, made claims and appeals, but they were rejected on formal grounds by the High Court and the Supreme Court. They did not take into account that fraud had quite obviously been committed, and that Čepro could not defend itself because it didn’t know about the ongoing dispute.

The Constitutional Court overturned the previous judgments, stating that they were decisions that displayed excessive formality with elements of arbitrariness resulting in a denial of justice. Thus the Venturon case returned to the Municipal Court, on the desk of Judge Hovorka, where it lies to this day.

If Čepro had known about the charges

Tukový průmysl’s charges against Čepro are based on unpaid taxes from Bena’s fuel. When customs officials came upon the fraud, they told Bena to pay Kč 2.9 billion. By then, however, Bena was an empty shell. As the operator of the public customs warehouse Tukový průmysl answered to the state for any customs arrears by its clients, customs officials slapped the same arrears on Tukový průmysl. But its accounts were found to be empty. Tukový průmysl’s charges against Čepro are based on unpaid taxes from Bena’s fuel.

Tukový průmysl then sued Čepro for Kč 2.9 billion in damages — with the justification that the state-owned company was the physical operator of the warehouse and should have informed Tukový průmysl that Bena was removing the fuel stored there. Čepro, however, had no such duty to do so although Tukový průmysl is still trying to prove the opposite

Čepro knew about Tukový průmysl’s lawsuit for Kč 2.9 billion, so it could defend itself. Thus, it now holds in its hands a legitimate ruling that dismisses Tukový průmysl’s claim that Čepro was responsible for the damages arising from the Bena case. Over the course of the legal disputes, Tukový průmysl has trimmed down its claims and is now demanding Čepro pays “just” Kč 75 million.

Čepro guards state fuel reserves and runs a wholesale fuel business as well as a network of 192 filling station under the EuroOil logo. Čepro owns over 1,100 km of pipelines and fuel tanks with a volume of 1.76 million cubic meters.

Autor:

FOR KIDS by měl být zážitkem pro celou rodinu, říká Monika
FOR KIDS by měl být zážitkem pro celou rodinu, říká Monika

Monika Pavlíčková (35 let) je maminkou dvou dcer, sedmileté Terezy a čtyřleté Laury, a zároveň také manažerkou obchodního týmu společnosti ABF,...