Prague - Czech police plan to expand their ongoing investigation of the Jana Nagyova case also to two major state companies, energy giant CEZ and Czech Railways. The UOOZ anti-mafia police unit will look into some of their investments.
Aktualne.cz has learned from a source that the investigation will start later this week, but the state companies in question say they are not aware of any police activity. "I haven't seen the UOOZ here since three years ago, when they were investigation electricity thefts," said CEZ spokesman Ladislav Kriz. "Policemen from the UOOZ are not investigating anything here, neither have they seized anything," said Czech Railways' Radek Joklik.
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However, the CEOs of both companies, Daniel Benes from CEZ and Petr Zaluda from Czech Railways, were mentioned in the police wiretap recordings of the Prime Minister's office head Jana Nagyova, arrested last week alongside with other high-profile individuals in the largest raid in Czech history.
Especially Benes, who was put in charge of the energy giant in 2011, had a close relation to Nagyova, and in the energy circles he was even considered her protegee.
CEZ and Czech Railways each receive tens of billions of taxpayer korunas every year as well as other favors from politicians.
The state has gradually liberalized the electricity market in the past ten years. As a result, consumer electricity prices in the Czech Republic doubled between 2004 and 2011, while CEZ's operating costs stayed low. This led to CEZ profits booming from CZK 10 billion (EUR 390 million) in 2004 to CZK 40 billion (EUR 1.6 billion) in 2007. Politicians also tolerated CEZ's unsuccessful investment adventures abroad, most recently in Albania and Bulgaria.
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In 2011, when then-CEZ chief Roman was replaced by Benes, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said that his TOP 09 was the only major political party that was not on CEZ's payroll. CEZ denied this accusation but did not ask Schwarzenberg to apologize. It is possible that the UOOZ is going to investigate this and similar claims of CEZ's illicit contributions to political parties.
In 2008, then-Transport Minister Ales Rebicek approved a special subsidy for Czech Railways, which was used for single-bidder contracts to buy railway cars. In 2010, the caretaker government of Jan Fischer approved another subsidy worth CZK 13 billion a year until 2019.
