The Brno Regional Court has sent the Ing-Czech construction company prosecuted in the case of the Černovice sand plant and privatisation of flats into bankruptcy. The company had previously filed for insolvency due to accounts seized by the police, according to the insolvency register. Seven people are facing charges in the case, including two companies.
Ing-Czech is among the accused, and the insolvency petition shows that the company is facing criminal prosecution and that, on the basis of the criminal prosecution, the criminal authorities have prevented the company from handling money and seized its accounts. According to the petition, the company has more than 120 creditors, mostly suppliers, and has quantified its liabilities at CZK 48.2 million. It had three dozen employees.
In a later statement to the court, the company said the criminal case had been mentioned frequently and repeatedly in the national media. “This fact resulted, among other things, in a number of the debtor’s business partners, including subcontractors on individual contracts, conditioning further cooperation with the debtor or the execution of further work on existing contracts on the immediate payment of their claims, or refusing to supply the debtor with any materials or services unless they had been previously paid. The debtor’s economic activity was completely paralysed by this,” the company’s statement to the court reads. It added that it was gradually winding down its economic activities.
The court sent the firm into bankruptcy by order, appointed an insolvency administrator and called a meeting of creditors for March. The meeting is expected to decide whether a reorganisation of the company will be possible or whether it will fall into bankruptcy.
Police officers from the National Centre against Organised Crime intervened in the case in Brno on 18 October and arrested ten people. Three were later released. Seven people were charged, and the city court sent them all into custody. Among them were Radovan Novotný, the former secretary of the Brno-střed town hall, businessman Michal Horky, and Jiří Novotný (ČSSD) and Jiří Hasoň (KDU-ČSL), now former managing directors of the sand plant and former city district councillors. The prosecutor later released some of the accused from custody. Two companies are also accused, one of them is Ing-Czech.
According to some media reports, the case has two branches, one of which is an attempt to take control of the sand plant, the other is the privatisation of the town houses. According to earlier reports in some media, the police consider Horký to be the head of an organized criminal group.
Source: CTK
