Police launch criminal prosecution in the Kočner versus TV Markíza case

In the case involving suspicious promissory notes, police have launched a criminal prosecution against an “unknown perpetrator”. NAKA is also to look into it.

Marian KočnerMarian Kočner (Source: Sme - Jozef Jakubčo)

Police have launched a criminal prosecution against an unknown perpetrator in the case of promissory notes involving the dispute of Marian Kočner and Pavol Rusko with the private TV broadcaster Markíza.

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Read also: TV Markíza must pay millions for dubious promissory notes Read more 

The police are investigating the crime of forging and the fraudulent alteration of money and securities and obstruction of justice has transpired. The National Criminal Agency (NAKA) has taken over the case, the Sme daily wrote on June 6.

Settlement for Gamatex

TV Markíza lawyers have claimed since the beginning of the dispute that the promissory notes are forged since nobody had heard about them before last year; and a series of suits is being handled by courts, revolving around the draught against Rusko and Markíza. In the first of three cases already in court, the judge decided that Kočner is entitled to receive the sum stated on the promissory note.

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Rusko and Kočner claim the additional payment of €70 million is a settlement from when the two of them fought for control over TV Markíza's ownership, i.e. from the so-called Gamatex case. Kočner seized the network in 1998 and occupied its building for two days, but ultimately, they agreed with Rusko.

Currently, they claim their agreement included a further settlement in promissory notes worth 500 million Slovak crowns (€16.6 million).

Markíza's lawyers have denied this version from the very beginning and deem the promissory notes a much later forgery, pointing to the lack of any mention of the notes until most recently.

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