Several documents published on Wednesday, January 13, have revealed that the US-based company Interblue Group, which is at the centre of a long-running scandal over the below-market-rate sale of Slovakia’s unused national greenhouse gas emissions quotas, was actually owned by the firm's two executive directors, Jana Lütken and Hans Grob. Lütken had previously been identified only as a manager of the firm, about which neither Interblue nor the Slovak government, its partner as vendor in the sale, have chosen to reveal many details.
The documents were issued by the authorities in the State of Washington, USA, where Interblue Group was originally registered, and made public by the Slovak watchdog organisation Fair-Play Alliance (AFP). One document published by AFP on its website shows that Interblue Group never registered with the US Internal Revenue Service.
Environment Minister Jozef Medveď said on January 12 that the company had signed over its business rights to a Switzerland-based firm called Interblue Europe. He did so in response to information in the media that Interblue Group ceased to exist in late 2009. Medveď declared that Slovakia would insist that Interblue Group's successor should pay an additional €15 million that was included in the original deal in relation to so-called green projects. Following a government session on January 13, Medveď said he was not aware of the fact that Lütken was not only an executive in Interblue Group, but that she also co-owned the company.
Asked if he as a minister would publish new information, Medveď said he was going to focus on seeing that the company's successor pays the additional amount specified in the contract.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
