IMRICH Sládeček, a former MP who was a member of the ruling Party of Civic Understanding and later joined the Slovak National Party, was sentenced to five years in jail for a Sk22.2 million (€547,700) fraud.
According to the Slovak daily SME, before entering politics, Sládeček led the company Centrogel, which applied for the Sk22.2 million from the state and promised to use it for the creation of 111 new jobs. But this never happened and although the firm initially hired the workers, it fired them after two months. Centrogel kept the state support.
Sládeček considered the case to be politically driven and pleaded not guilty throughout the trial. Some of Sládeček's company management peers were sentenced along with him.