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Investigator Rejects Case of SDKU's Shady Financing Practices
Friday 17 December 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 17 (TASR) - Prosecutor-General's Office spokesperson Jana Tokolyova confirmed for TASR on Friday that a prosecutor working for the Special Prosecutor's Office on Thursday received an investigator's decision to put a halt to the investigation into the financing of main coalition party SDKU-DS (December 16), along with extensive documentation on the case.
SDKU MP Stanislav Janis told TASR on Friday that the party has never interfered in any investigation. "It's in the hands of the investigating authorities now. We've never even so much as commented on their findings," he said.
The media revisited the case of SDKU's financing after the party recently re-elected Igor Kucej as its treasurer. Kucej has lent money to SDKU a couple of times and was in charge of party finances when the allegedly suspect practices are supposed to have taken place.
In January 2010, Smer-SD chairman Robert Fico pointed out that SDKU's financing has been linked to various shady companies. This ultimately cost SDKU chairman Mikulas Dzurinda his place on the party slate for this year's general election. According to Fico's information, a company called Destor Investment had the same address, founder, management and secretary as London-based company Allied Wings, which provided a loan to SDKU a decade ago.
Smer is also under suspicion of shady financing, but a decision to launch a criminal investigation was cancelled by Special Prosecutor Dusan Kovacik. This means that a recording featuring a voice similar to Fico's boasting that the speaker had personally acquired Sk75 million (€2.49 million) in sponsorship won't be sent for expert analysis. Fico claims that the recording is a hoax.
"I can only say that I've got hold of, and I hope nobody's listening, Sk35 million for this year, some Sk40 million for next year, plus some other things as well," states the person on the recording. According to official records, the party received only close to Sk5 million (€165,000) in sponsorship in 2001 and 2002.
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