In the case of contracts for the repair of the stud farm in Kladruby, conditions and monetary fines were imposed

Prague - The Prague High Court today definitively punished 12 people and one company - Chládek a Tintěra - in the case of manipulated contracts for the repairs of the National Stud in Kladruby nad Labem. They were imposed conditional or monetary penalties, similar to those of the regional court. In contrast to the first-instance verdict, it acquitted two other accused companies, DOP Construction and Strabag.

The harshest sentence was given to the former director of the construction company Cettus, Vladimír Nový. At the time of the contracts, in 2013, he was the investor’s representative and manipulated the selection process for the processing of project documentation and technical supervision. The appellate panel confirmed his three-year conditional sentence with a probation period of five years. He also received a monetary fine of 200,000 CZK.

The former deputy director of the stud, Simona Voňková, received a three-year conditional sentence, and the then-general director of Chládek a Tintěra, Petr Pejcha, received a conditional sentence of two years and nine months. Other defendants received conditional and monetary penalties. The company Chládek a Tintěra was fined two million CZK.

The court maintained similar penalties as those previously imposed by the first-instance court. It thus rejected the appeal of state prosecutor Adam Borgula, who requested harsher punishments. It also did not accept the appeals of the defendants, who insisted on their innocence and requested acquittal.

According to the chairwoman of the appellate panel, Hana Navrátilová, it was not proven in court that the prices for repairs were significantly inflated. The criminal activity thus only concerned the selection of contracts. "It is therefore possible to accept the procedure of the first-instance court, which imposed penalties below the legal rate," the judge stated. Moreover, a long time has passed since the commission of the acts, according to her.

The case concerns the preparation and implementation of the procurement procedure in the project Restoration of components of the national cultural monument Stud in Kladruby nad Labem. The prosecution was related to the first and second phases of the restoration of the monument. According to the indictment, the actions of the accused endangered a subsidy for the reconstruction of the stud in the amount of 250 million CZK.

In the case, 15 individuals and six companies - Metrostav, Metrostav Infrastructure, Strabag, DOB Construction (formerly Geosan Stavební), Cettus, and Chládek a Tintěra - faced prosecution. The first-instance court excluded one of the men and three companies – Metrostav, Metrostav Infrastructure, and Cettus – for separate proceedings to avoid waiting for decisions in other criminal cases in which they are involved. Subsequently, the court found them guilty but refrained from imposing penalties. Two other men received final sentences already in December.

The High Court had already dealt with the case in February 2021. It returned the majority of the case for a new hearing. The group faced various penalties. According to the indictment, for attempting to harm the financial interests of the EU and for preparing a subsidy fraud, the courts could impose up to ten years of imprisonment, for obtaining an advantage in public procurement and conspiracy up to eight years, and for violating competition rules up to five years.