České Budějovice - Police in southern Bohemia detected an attempted loan fraud worth of dozens of billions CZK.

The police arrested a married couple from the Písek region in the southern part of the Czech Republic. The couple tried to obtain a bank guarantee of 3.5 billion USD (almost 82 billion CZK) allegedly to finance their private airline company.

The couple backed up their intention by using a non-existent American bank. The whole fraud was stopped in Switzerland shortly before the contracts were to be signed.

"The Swiss bank did not implement the transcation due to suspicion of providing false information and counterfeit documents, stated South Bohemian police in its press release.

"South Bohemian police filed a criminal prosecution against a 54-year old man as the chairman and 43-year old woman as the vice-chairwoman of the Board of Directors of a stock company registered in Písek for fraud attempt," stated Jana Kameníková of Czech police.

The fraud attempt was exposed courtesy of cooperation between the Czech police, American federal bank and US Ministry of Justice. Czech police has been investigating the case since mid-2006.

The couple faces up to 12 years in prison.