On June 14 Slovakia’s Supreme Court turned down an appeal by František Mojžiš, the head of a non-banking company called Drukos that bilked customers in a Ponzi scheme from 1999 to 2002. Mojžiš had been sentenced to more than eight years in prison by the Specialised Criminal Court in Pezinok in May 2011, the SITA newswire wrote.
The Specialised Court convicted Mojžiš of accepting in Sk237.7 million (€7.89 million) from 1,367 customers of Drukos as well as Sk3.729 billion (€123.78 million) from 23,823 members of the BVD cooperative association between 1999 and 2002. The court concluded that Mojžiš abused people's trust and their lack of experience and used deceptive advertising in which Drukos promised annual interest rates of 15 to 31 percent.
The court ruled that Mojžiš knew in advance that the company would not be able to fulfil its ensuing financial obligations, the TASR newswire wrote. Mojžiš, aged 54, who was using the money to underwrite business ventures such as Drukos Leasing, said in his defence that he would have met his obligations if the state had not intervened.
The ruling of the Supreme Court cannot be appealed.
Source: SITA, TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
