Final Word from Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Like many of the CR's nouveau riche or wannabes, Stanislav Gross has been on a collision course with disaster. He's cut so many corners and irked so many people that, if there were any justice, he'd soon get his comeuppance. Instead, he's getting a mil or two (euros), which he no doubt sees as his drop-dead money. Josef Chuchma of MFD suggests that we now let Stan rot in solitude. A good idea, but something tells us the fat lady hasn't sung yet. Too many questions remain. Why, for example, did Pavol Krúpa pay Gross five times the going rate for the 31% stake in Moravia Energo? Perhaps Krúpa plans to dazzle majority-owner Tomáš Chrenek with his business plan, or perhaps he intends to call in his Ukrainians to work on Chrenek's knees. More likely, it seems, is that Gross used his own stash to buy the shares from himself, with Krúpa's help. Krúpa gets publicity and a cut of the action; Gross gets a tax-free, dry-cleaned windfall. May he spend it in purgatory.[Czech Republic Ukraine MF Dnes energy Třinecké železárny Arca Capital Bohemia]