Veneer of respectability
It didn't make it into this morning's Czech papers, but ex-Slovak
Finance Minister Ivan Miklo accused J&T and Istrokapital of
using inside information to make hundreds of millions of crowns
on the recent revaluation of the Slovak crown. J&T and other
1990s-era financial groups are said to be trying to gain
respectability, but a report like this makes one wonder, esp.
after the way PM Mirek Topolánek was off playing golf with a J&T
official recently in Italy. Another Slovak financial group, Penta,
was accused by Slovak PM Robert Fico in 2006 of offering him a
bribe for the privatization of the local airport. Both J&T and
Penta are now interested in Prague Airport. If the runway deal
and privatization don't go through while the airport is still hot,
the backup plan should perhaps be to return to the idea of
seizing the runway land commandeered by Penta while it was
still in its pre-respectability mode.
[Czech Republic Slovakia Bratislavia euro adoption trading band
confiscation eminent domain]
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