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Lütken Wasn't Just Co-Executive in Interblue Group, She Co-Owned It
Wednesday 13 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, January 13 (TASR) - Several documents issued by Washington state authorities presented on Wednesday by the Slovak watchdog organisation Fair-Play Alliance (AFP) have revealed that a U.S.-based company Interblue Group was owned by the firm's two co-executive directors - Jana Lütken and Hans Grob.
On its website, AFP published a document proving that Interblue Group – known for a scandalous purchase of 15 million tonnes of unused emission quotas from Slovakia in 2008 – has never been registered with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
Environment Minister Jozef Medved on Tuesday said that the company has signed over its business rights to a Switzerland-based firm called Interblue Europe. He did so in response to information in the media that the Interblue Group ceased to exist in late 2009. At the same time, Medved declared that Slovakia will insist that the Interblue Group's successor should pay the additional €15 million that was included in the deal and related to so-called green projects.
Following the Government session on Wednesday, Medved said he wasn't aware of the fact that Lütken was not only co-executive in Interblue Group, but she also co-owned the company. Asked if he as a minister would screen the fresh facts out, Medved said he was going to focus on seeing that the company's successor pays the additional amount, as specified in the contract.
The case goes back to 2008 when Slovakia sold 15 million tonnes of emission quotas to Interblue Group for €75 million, at a rate of €5.05 per tonne. The deal was harshly criticised by the Opposition, and received huge media attention. Also, according to the contract, an extra euro per tonne should have been paid by the company for green projects but wasn't. Lütken said on December 2 that the projects aren't well defined, and that the company won't pay an outstanding amount of €15 million to Slovakia.
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