Prague - Since over a year now authorities are investigating suspicions that the building of the Temelín nuclear power station was accompanied by financial fiddling that may have cost the state at least one hundred million Czech Crowns.
The police is currently investigating financial operations by several Czech companies involved in the power station construction during the 1990s.
The suspicion is: these companies' representatives were concluding millions' worth of contracts with the state for the work that didn't exist except on paper.
It started in Germany
The impetus came from German criminal investigation services: they came across the case by chance while looking into an unrelated case connected to money laundering.
The Czech anti-corruption service officially confirmed there is an investigation but would not release any details. The only thing it would say was the case is being investigated as a suspected tax evasion.
"The case is being checked, operational checks had been initiated, but at this moment we cannot give any more details," the service's spokeswoman Ms Alena Vokráčková said.
At least one hundred million
Aktuálně.cz found that German criminal service bumped into the Temelín connection while investigating activities of one of the companies in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The investigators suspected the representatives of the company of the most serious financial crimes tax evasion and money laundering.
There were hundreds of millions appearing on the balance sheets of the company disappearing promptly in Swiss-held banks.
While looking at the numbers, the police found millions coming in from the Czech Republic - from the companies involved in building the South Bohemia nuclear power station.
Following a number of hearings they contacted their Czech colleagues in late 2005, to share a suspicion: these companies were concluding business contracts for Temelín building between 1994 and 1999, but the work was never delivered. The damages are at least 100 million.
The Czech police started its own investigation soon afterwards.
Difficult task for the investigators
The anti-corruption service would not disclose the names of the companies under investigation; but according to the information available to Aktuálně.cz they are mostly building companies, such as former Water Building Works Temelín (Vodní stavby Temelín).
They have only one thing in common: the current owners came in only after the machination took place, German police claims. That's what is seriously hampering the investigation.
"In some cases, there are no documents, in others no witnesses, some already died. The investigation is coming relatively late," said a state official related to the investigation.
Police, with the information input from Germany, was trying to check on the cash-flows related to the Zenit company run by Mr. Richard Háva, who is a friend of the Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek and who is also linked to another corruption affair - that surrounding the purchase of Grippen fighter planes.
But the crime investigators are claiming so far they found nothing linking the company of the influential Czech entrepreneur to the shady deals around building of Temelín.
