FBI to Look into Alleged Corruption with Talc Mining Licence in Slovakia
Bratislava, August 19 (TASR) - The US Department of Justice and the FBI will look into the case involving the removal of a licence from EuroGas for talc mining in Gemerska Poloma (Kosice region) in 2004, TASR learnt on Wednesday.
"EuroGas is a publicly traded American company with 30,000 shareholders. So, it's a duty for its management to provide evidence to the American law-enforcement authorities on corruption and to report that the company has been damaged in a third country," EuroGas managing board chairman Wolfgang Rauball wrote in a statement for TASR.
EuroGas claims that the current talc mining licence, used by Eurotalc at the moment and earlier by VSK Mining, was issued unlawfully in 2005. Meanwhile, the Slovak Economy Ministry rejected EuroGas's complaint, claiming that the decision was made in line with the law. Nevertheless, Rauball is making Eur oGas's case by pointing to a letter from the District Mining Office in Spisska Nova Ves (Kosice region) from August 4, 2015.
"Its chairman Antonin Baffi has confirmed [in the letter] that neither VSK Mining, nor Eurotalc took part in the tender for acquiring a licence for talc mining in Gemerska Poloma," said Rauball.
A copy of the letter obtained by TASR reads that the selection process on April 21, 2005 featured seven companies - Siderit, Nizna Slana; Rudohorska investicna spolocnost, Spisska Nova Ves; Vychodoslovensk e kamenolomy, Novoveska Huta; IMI Fabbi Slovakia, Bratislava; Mondo Minerals Slovakia, Bratislava; Economy agency RV, Roznava; and New Co Slovakia, Bratislava.
"It's beyond all understanding that a tender that featured two of the world's largest talc producers – Mondo Minerals and IMI Fabbi – was won by a small accounting company called Economy agency RV. This provides the basis for suspicions of possible corruption," said Rauball.
Plus 7 Dni weekly magazine last year reported that it obtained a copy of the records from a testimony provided by W.D. Keller, who at the time represented Mondo Minerals. He stated that before his meeting with then economy minister Pavol Rusko in December 2004, he was approached by two men who told him that his company could obtain the talc mining licence if it provided €5 million to Rusko's party New Citizen's Alliance (ANO). According to the magazine, Keller rejected the offer and reported it to his superiors.
VSK Mining acquired the mining rights as late as when the tender winner Economy agency RV ceased to exist. According to Rauball, this is another argument in favour of challenging the lawfulness of the licence. Rauball pointed to a directive of the Main Mining Office from 2013, according to which mining areas a nd the related right to carry out mining in the concerned exclusive deposits can't be transferred along with the equity to a legal successor of the licence holder, as stated in Paragraph 68/2 of the Commercial Code.
"Along with the dissolution of an organisation entitled to mine an exclusive deposit, the right of this organisation to mine an exclusive deposit in the designated mining area also ceases to exist, while this case of dissolution is not dealt with by the currently valid Mining Act," reads a copy of the directive obtained by TASR.
VSK Mining has been renamed in the meantime as Eurotalc, which is fully owned by Schmid Industrieholding. The latter company's chief Robert Schmid told Austrian Industrie Magazin in July that his firm is mining talc in Slovakia because it has gained a majority stake in VSK Mining.
"We've checked several times to see whether the licence was in order – we wouldn't be mad enough to want to get into trouble. This project is clean. Eurotalc has legally binding decisions repeatedly confirmed by lawyers and the authorities," said Schmid.
EuroGas has initiated an international arbitration process at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in order to have the current mining licence taken away from its holder. The arbitration was launched in 2014, with EuroGas claiming compensation of $3.2 billion (€2.9 billion) from Slovakia for thwarting its investment plan. The verdict is expected to be pronounced in the spring of 2016.
EuroGas had been threatening Slovakia with arbitration since 2010. Initially, it demanded compensation of €500 million in 2011. EuroGas Inc. registered in the USA joined the claim for compensation one year later, with the sum increasing to $1.65 billion (€1.5 billion). EuroGas ba sed its claim on pointing to an alleged violation of its rights as stipulated in an agreement on mutual support and protection of investments concluded by the former Czechoslovakia and the USA in 1991. Slovakia claims that this agreement wasn't violated in this case, however.
Quelle: www.eurogas-ag.ch/...ut-ueber-den-Gemerska-Poloma-Skandal.html
Salve,
Tasche :)