Former interior minister Robert Kaliňák. (source: SME - Jozef Jakubčo)
The Special Prosecutor’s Office has filed criminal charges against former interior minister for the Smer party, Robert Kaliňák, and oligarch and Smer’s patron, Jozef Brhel.
Special Prosecutor Daniel Lipšic confirmed the information to the Denník N daily on Tuesday.
The charges concern the František Imrecze case. Imrecze was appointed head of the Financial Administration, Slovakia’s tax authority, in 2012. Smer was then in power. Kaliňák reportedly told Imrecze to ask Brhel to pay him extra money to match his previous salary. Before being appointed, Imrecze had worked in the private sector, where he is said to have earned €280,000 a year. In return, Imrecze helped a firm co-owned by Brhel win contracts with the tax authority. Imrecze reportedly got the job at the Financial Administration thanks to his wife, who knew Kaliňák’s wife.
