Prague - "You are behaving like a moron," said Czech Labor Minister Frantisek Konicek to a reporter of the Aktualne.cz online newspaper who asked him about his previous involvement with offshore companies.
The journalist, Eliska Bartova, has learned from a report produced by Transparency International that before he was appointed minister in July this year, Frantisek Konicek held senior positions at various companies whose owners were hidden behind bearer-share or tax-haven based entities, and that these companies received millions of euros in EU aid.
This is not against the Czech law, but the reporter wanted to know if the minister saw his previous involvement with anonymous companies as a problem and if he could prove that he is in no conflict of interest.
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Konicek initially refused to speak to the reporter. "I will not talk to you about that, it is my private issue," Konicek said when asked who is the owner of the companies he worked at just several months ago. "I have no idea why should I justify myself to you, that is none of your concern," said the minister who also called Aktualne.cz a "cheap tabloid".
The minister is a candidate in the upcoming elections of SPOZ, a left-wing party affiliated with President Milos Zeman whose platform promises to abolish bearer shares, but he himself owns bearer shares of the Karlstejnska company. When the reporter asked him about this paradox, Konicek responded that a bearer-share company that receives no public contracts does not constitute a problem.
"I do not own any foreign companies, neither in Europe nor anywhere else. I was just a manager at a subsidiary of a company that was operating, creating jobs and paying taxes here. I have no right to say - and I am not interested in - who is their shareholder," said the minister.
After the reporter further pressed him, Konicek ended the interview by saying "You are behaving like a moron, that is all. Good bye."
