František Imrecze, ex-president of the Financial Administration, talks to the press after the court announced the final verdict in his case on February 9, 2023. (source: TASR - Martin Baumann)
František Imrecze, one of the well-known cooperating defendants in several corruption cases and former head of the Financial Administration tax authority, has been convicted of corruption.
On Thursday, he was given a three-year suspended prison sentence with a five-year probationary period. He will also have to pay €202,000, the highest financial punishment in Slovakia’s history according to Prosecutor Ondrej Repa, unless he wants to serve a three-year prison sentence. Moreover, he cannot work for public administration for six years and cannot meet with the people he bribed.
This is not the most serious punishment, though. As Judge Pamela Záleská explained, Imrecze is helping to clarify serious criminal activity.
For example, thanks to his testimony, the police charged former three-time interior minister for the Smer party, Robert Kaliňák, in a corruption case last week.
Accepting responsibility
The legally-binding sentence is the outcome of the previously concluded plea agreement between the Special Prosecutor’s Office and Imrecze, which the Specialised Criminal Court has approved in a slightly modified version.
Imrecze said the agreement is the result of his actions and his decision to cooperate with law enforcement authorities.
“I have accepted the responsibility from the beginning and I will continue to accept it,” he told the media after the court announced its verdict, as quoted by the Sme daily.
The former high-ranking public servant ruled out anyone putting pressure on him while in custody.
Bribes and IT contracts
The conviction concerns the Mýtnik (Toll collector) corruption case.
After he resigned from the post in 2018, following the European Anti-Fraud Office’s reports on large-scale customs frauds in the years 2013-2014, he asked entrepreneur Michal Suchoba for financial remuneration for himself and his three Financial Administration employees. The institution had previously agreed to conclude overpriced contracts with Allexis, an IT firm owned by Suchoba.
One of the employees and Suchoba have admitted to corruption.
Today, Imrecze is helping the police in about ten different cases.
One is the notorious Očistec (Purgatory) case, in which ex-police chief Tibor Gašpar and oligarch Norbert Bodor are charged with establishing and running an organised crime group.
