FBI enquires into Czech lease, planned purchase of Gripens-server

It says the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) enquires into the case at the proposal of Hans Leitner and Peter Andahazy, whom Erste, which has a New York banking licence, dismissed earlier this year.

The two former managers recently said the FBI also inquires into the privatisation of the Ceska sporitelna (CS) Czech savings bank that the then Czech government sold to Erste in 2000, Aktualne.cz writes.

The suspicion around the Gripen lease is part of the accusation saying that Erste Bank bribed politicians in privatisation deals in Central and Eastern Europe, including the CS privatisation. Leitner and Andahazy reportedly plan to file a lawsuit by the end of the year.

Leitner and Andahazy say the same names figure in the Gripen case and the case of Erste Bank's alleged corruption.

There is a suspicion that some financial flows were carried out through the accounts of Erste or its subsidiary. Banks should know their clients and should monitor their suspicious deals, Andahazy is quoted as saying.

In February 2007, Swedish detectives started enquiring into the purchase and lease of Gripens by the Czech Republic, and the Swiss police joined the investigations a few months later, at the request of the British anti-corruption police.

The investigation confirmed that the British company BAE Systems made large latent payments while negotiating the Gripens sale in the Czech Republic, Hungary and South Africa.

In Austria, the police arrested businessman Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, whom observers connect with the case. At present he continues to be checked, though not in prison.

The purchase of Gripens was checked by the Czech anti-corruption police as well in the past.

The then Social Democrat (CSSD) minority cabinet of Milos Zeman approved a contract on the purchase of Gripens worth 60.2 billion crowns in April 2002. However, the project failed to win parliament's support, and the next coalition government of Vladimir Spidla (CSSD) scrapped it as it needed money for other purposes, including the removal of the aftermath of the disastrous floods of August 2002.

In 2004 the Czechs leased 14 Gripens from Sweden worth 20 billion crowns. One year later the Gripens arrived in the Czech Republic, replacing the air force's outdated Russian-made MiG-21s.

($1=17.294 crowns)

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz