FORMER treasurer of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ) Ondrej Matej admitted that he borrowed money from companies linked to two tycoons, which he later used as a guarantee for the party’s loan, the Sme daily reported in its October 8 issue.
“It was an ordinary loan from people whom I knew for a long time,” Matej told Sme.
The story pertains to earlier Sme reports that Matej’s company Eplfinance became a guarantor of the loan SDKÚ took from Privatbanka in 2011. According to the daily, Eplfinance had to pay €0.5 million that would be paid to the bank in case the party does not pay off the loan. The company reportedly borrowed the money from City-Arena, connected to tycoon Vladimír Poór, and a firm owned by Dušan Repák, lawyer of tycoon Ivan Kmotrík. Both loans have very low interest rate, only 0.15 and 1.21 percent, as reported by Sme.
Eplfinance got first half of the amount from Repák, whom Matej knows personally from climbing. The second came from architect Pavol Adamec, whom Matej allegedly helped to launch the operation of Max shopping centre in Prešov. Adamec sent money through City-Arena, according to Sme.
Matej says he did not examine Repák’s and Adamec’s connections to the tycoons.
“We were saving SDKÚ from bankruptcy,” Matej told Sme, “it was a priority for me and I did not have a clue that the interests of those two [Poór and Kmotrík] might be behind it.”
Matej stressed that neither Poór nor Kmotrík are involved in SDKÚ which is also proved by the fact that he has paid off most of the loan, Sme wrote.
According to Milan Roman of SDKÚ, the party will deal with the guarantee. Current chair of the party Pavol Frešo has allegedly agreed on meeting with Privatbanka.
Source: Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
