The Office for State Representation in Property Matters (ÚZSVM) has yesterday cancelled three of five electronic auctions for parts of the recreational area in Rabyně in the Benešov region, which previously belonged to Petr Smetko, the founder of the bankrupt company H-System. No one has posted bail. Two auctions have been launched, involving buildings and land worth CZK 32.4 million and CZK 768,000 respectively. The result will be known on Thursday, according to information on the authority’s website. Similarly, earlier auctions for parts of the Smetko site were cancelled.
The Property Office yesterday launched an electronic auction for a part of the complex with recreational buildings and land used, for example, as a sports ground. At least one bidder in this case has paid the required deposit of CZK 3.2 million by the deadline. The situation was similar with a building offered for three quarters of a million crowns on someone else’s land. On the other hand, the three remaining auctions, including the auction of land and buildings at the beach campsite with a minimum price of CZK 80.3 million, were cancelled.
The ÚZSVM offered the Smetko site for sale in September and December last year, but none of the electronic auctions produced a winner. In the past, the state announced that it would compensate H-System’s clients from the sale of the recreation area, although they did not directly figure as victims in the proceedings concerning Rabyně. This would have to be decided by the government under a special regime.
Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict on the seizure of the Rabyně site. It rejected an appeal by businessman Luděk Fabinger, who had acquired the land at auction in 2005. According to the verdict, the auction was illegal, so the land belonged to the state. Smetka’s property was seized and the land register was sealed. Fabinger acquired the site for CZK 29 million. However, according to estimates, the value of the site was more than double – and is even higher.
Smetka founded H-System in 1993, and the company then entered into contracts with hundreds of interested parties to build and transfer apartments and houses in the Prague area. But in the autumn of 1997 it went bankrupt, having managed to complete only 34 houses. The company’s collapse cost at least 1,095 people more than CZK 980 million. The courts sent Smetka to prison for 12 years, but he was released in October 2016.
Source: ÚZSVM and CTK
Map: Google
