Piešťany Spa Director Karol M. Charged with Fraud

BRATISLAVA (SITA) - Chief investigator at the Interior Ministry Jaroslav Ivor used a press conference of the Interior Ministry on Monday to inform journalists that the first charges were filed in association with offenses linked to the privatization of the Piešťany spa. He said that on April 7 a police investigator charged Karol M., director general of the Vadium Group, chairman of its board of directors, and former director of Devin Bank, based on the suspicion that he committed fraud. Ivor informed that the charged Karol M., in cooperation with other individuals, unlawfully transferred 51 percent of the Piestany spa initially to an employees` joint stock company, Spoločnosť Zamestnancov Piešťanských Kúpeľov (SZPK), and then to Vadium Group. Ivor specified that through this act, the national privatization agency National Property Fund (FNM) suffered damages amounting to 602.429 million SKK or even more. Karol M. organized and coordinated the activities of a so far unspecified number of FNM employees, members of FNM executive committee, the FNM Presidium, the FNM Board of Directors, and also FNM shareholders. The SZPK submitted a privatization project on the purchase of 51 percent of the SLK`s stake on March 15, 1996. The group formed around Karol M. arranged FNM-Presidium approval for this project. With the FNM`s blessing, the SZPK bought 51 percent of SLK shares for 302,429 million SKK on March 28, 1996. Ivor revealed that this purchase took place although the FNM could have chosen a more lucrative offer. Partners of Karol M. subsequently secured for Karol M. FNM signatures of Executive Committee members on the amendment to the existing contract, transferring SZPK-owned 51 percent of the shares to Vadium Group Bratislava. Ivor informed that Karol M. fled the country after the recording of a phone call corroborating former SIS director Lexaís participation in the abduction of Michal Kováč Jr. abroad, and the investigator`s efforts to serve Karol M. with the charges against him have been in vain so far. The investigator has already required the appointment of a lawyer for the charged man because the investigation continues although Karol M. is outside Slovakia. Ivor did not rule out that the police might turn to Interpol to help bring Karol M. before the investigator.