Prague - The threat of another arbitration lawsuit against the Czech Republic has materialised. Norway's Czechoslonor has decided to demand CZK 330 million from the state.
The Norwegian firm owned a salmon-processing plant near Litoměřice, northern Bohemia. It lost the factory in a bankruptcy process marked by a number of unusual steps on the part of government authorities.
The police are now investigating the bankruptcy administrator and his two companions for allegedly requesting a CZK 0.5 million bribe from the Norwegians.
The investigation delayed the arbitration lawsuit, but Czechoslonor has already decided: The lawsuit will take place, there is no way out, Aktuálně.cz has learned.
Waiting for the police
"The arbitration lawsuit has not been filed yet because the police are investigating the company's bankruptcy. The case was evolving and further important documents for the lawsuit were added. But we have by now prepared even the financing of the arbitration," says Czechoslonor's Edvard Stolba.
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The police have recently announced the case of the accused bankruptcy administrator and his companions will be closed and handed over to a court soon.
The Finance Ministry is reluctant to comment on the case. Its spokesman Ondřej Jakob only said the ministry had not registered the Czechoslonor lawsuit yet.
The culprits
New information gathered by Aktuálně.cz points at culprits in the probably unjustified bankruptcy of the salmon-processing plant and hence in the planned arbitration lawsuit. Both the police and the largest Czech bank ČSOB have played a role in the story.
The countdown to the factory shutdown started in December 2004, when ČSOB pulled out of a loan contract with the owners. The company went bust at once, although the bank's decision was based on a made-up police report.
Police lieutenant Jaroslav Vydra told the Ústí nad Labem crime department he suspected Edvard Stolba from Czechoslonor was a loan and insurance fraudster.
The investigation later showed that Vydra had made up the story (for personal reasons, he also harassed Stolba and his girlfriend with short messages, prompting his superior to cut his wages), but the bankruptcy proceedings continued.
Bank: No telling
The Ústí branch of ČSOB refuses to disclose the details behind its decision to pull out of the loan contract. It says this had nothing to do with Vydra's report, but it is reluctant to make the reason public.
"The bank assesses the economic situation of the debtor before it asks for immediate repayment of a loan," says Ján Lučan, the chief lawyer at ČSOB.
Although the Norwegian owners authorised the bank to make public all documents and the reasons behind the decision to pull out of the loan deal, ČSOB failed to do this. Lučan says the bank would have harmed its reputation in the eyes of other clients.
Adapted and republished by the Prague Daily Monitor
