Prague, Sept 10 (CTK) – Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s wife Monika Babisova has given up her post in the board of the firm Imoba which owns the Capi hnizdo conference centre and farm, due to which he is facing charges of an EU subsidy fraud, the daily E15 writes today.
The Farma Capi hnizdo company was a part of Babis’s Agrofert chemical, food and agricultural holding in late 2007, when it changed its status to a joint stock company with bearer shares. In summer 2008, it gained a 50-million-crown EU subsidy within a programme for small and medium-sized companies, which it could never have gained as a part of Agrofert.
After a few years of meeting the subsidy condition, it rejoined Agrofert. At present, the Capi Hnizdo company is owned by Imoba.
Babis, his wife, his brother-in-law Martin Herodes and Babis’s two adult children from his first marriage have been charged with a subsidy fraud.
Babisova left her post in the board at her own request on May 23. She did not provide any reason for her resignation.
Two weeks ago, the Central Bohemia Regional Council Office called on Imoba to return the subsidy for Capi hnizdo and it did so at the end of June.
Imoba is a part of the group SynBiol. Babis was its sole shareholder until last February.
Due to the conflict of interests law, Babis transferred the shares of SynBiol and holding to trust funds. In the past, Imoba belonged to Agrofert and it bought Capi hnizdo in 2013.
Lawyer Ales Rozehnal said it depended on the election of Babisova’s successor whether Babis would have a chance of still dominating Imoba.
“If Babis had any influence on his/her selection and subsequent choice, he would be still the dominant person of the corporation,” he added.
“In such a case, he would not fulfil the condition set down in the law on the conflict of interests,” Rozehnal added.
The statutes of Babis’s trust funds are not public.