Begging to be sued

When Lubomír Zaorálek of ČSSD accused businessman Zdeněk Bakala of behaving like a crook, Bakala immediately went to court (and lost). When Ondřej Liška of the Greens said in Deník last month that ČEZ's recent "highly overpriced" acquisitions smacked of daylight robbery, CEO Martin Roman remained silent. Liška made the accusation more concrete in Týden yesterday, saying that ČEZ's management has been stealing from the company. Still nothing from Roman. Radim Jančura of Student Agency pulled out all the stops yesterday at a press conference of Růžový panter anti-corruption NGO. He almost begged to be sued for saying that Roman, as the secret majority owner of Appian, has been on both sides of the table in billions of crown of deals at ČEZ and Czech Railways, and that he can prove it. Why hasn't Roman lawyered up? Presumably because he knows that he, too, would lose. [Czech Republic Party Pink Panther RPG NWR]