Court Finds NBS Governor Peter K. Guilty of Bribery, Gives Him €200,000 Fine

Pezinok, 29 May (TASR) - The Specialised Criminal Court (STS) in Pezinok (Bratislava region) has found ex-finance minister and Slovakia's central bank (NBS) governor Peter K. [name abbreviated due to legal reasons] guilty of bribery and imposed a €200,000 fine on him. If he fails to pay the fine, he will spend one year in prison. The court also ordered confiscation of his property amounting to €48,000. The defendant didn't appear to hear the verdict in person. The prosecutor has kept the deadline for filing an appeal. Peter K.'s lawyer said he will recommend that his client should appeal against the verdict. "It doesn't make sense to make up such a trivial case," stated judge Milan Cisarik about the defence's tactics. He also said that most of the defence's arguments concerned the statute of limitations and halting a criminal prosecution. However, the proceedings couldn't be halted, as EU funds and value-added tax were at stake, stated the judge. When imposing the fine, the court took into account the governor's income and the amount of the bribe given. According to the indictment, Peter K., as finance minister, asked former head of Financial Administration Frantisek Imrecze to make sure the VAT refunds worth a total of €3 million were paid to several selected firms as a priority, giving Imcrecze a bribe of €48,000 in exchange for this. Peter K. since the beginning of the trial has insisted on his innocence, claiming that he's never given a bribe to anyone and views the prosecution as unlawful. This is the second charge of bribery that the NBS governor has faced, with the first charges pressed in the autumn of 2022 and cancelled by the Prosecutor-General's Office. In April 2023, an STS judge found Peter K. guilty of bribery and fined him €100,000. As both the prosecutor and the defendant appealed against the verdict, the case proceeded to the current trial. ko/df