From the beginning, however, the Ján Kuciak entourage has worked mainly with the version that the suspect may be businessman Marián Kočner. The controversial figure has been linked to a number of cases and was a frequent topic of Kuciak’s articles. In autumn 2017, Kočner threatened journalists that he would seek “dirt” on his immediate family and destroy his career. “We will start to pay special attention to you, your person, your mother, your father, your siblings,” he said in a recorded phone call. Kuciak complained on Facebook in September that even 44 days after filing a criminal complaint for threats, police were not dealing with his report. Police said Kuciak’s words were neither a criminal act nor a misdemeanor.
Ján Kuciak has written about suspicious transfers of apartments in the Five Star Residence apartment complex in Bratislava. The building is also linked to the Bašternák case, which began with information about VAT refunds. After the scandal broke out, he promised to move out, but did not do so for years.
Kočner’s company, Inkasný servis, has been in the police’s crosshairs mainly because of suspicious transfers of hotels owned by Marián Kočner in Donovaly. However, the authorities also investigated tax evasion in the transfer of the Five Stars Residence apartments. The company Inkasný servis bought 17 flats in the development project for one euro. This was to circumvent the obligation to pay high taxes on the transaction.
Kočner is no stranger to controversial deals. For example, he is behind Privatbank, which has become famous as a money launderer. It has been sanctioned several times by Slovak and international authorities for accepting large sums of cash without records. Kočner has also found himself on so-called mafia lists. The document, allegedly drawn up by the police, was supposed to complete a list of people active in organised crime. In 2011, an elite police officer brought it out.
Together with the underworld, the entrepreneur also organized the violent takeover of Markíza television in 1998. The businessman and then politician Pavol Rusko founded the television controversially, without clear ownership structures. The Broadcasting Council therefore refused to issue the television a licence. This happened only after the intervention of well-known lobbyists and the then chairman of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, former President Ivan Gašparovič .
With sponsorship donations provided by the credit of well-known lobbyists associated with the underworld, Russia was supposed to buy a license and start broadcasting in a way that would not harm Vladimir Mečiar’s HZDS. However, the problem arose after Russia refused to pay the lobbyists and underworld people involved.
One of them sold his claim to Marian Kočner. He, as co-owner of Gamatex, forced Sylvia Volzová, co-owner of Markíza, to notarially acknowledge the debt that unknown businessmen had allegedly loaned to the Russian to obtain a broadcasting licence. After some time, Marian Kočner appeared on television with a paper depriving Rusk of his executive position in the company.
However, after the conflict and the dispute had subsided, less than a month later – on 15 September – Markíza was forcibly occupied by Kočner’s people. The fact that Kočner did not hesitate to use force in those days is proved by the fact that Pavol Rusko disappeared for several days for fear of his life and nobody knew where he was. The situation was only resolved by several days of public protests and the intervention of top politicians. How Kočner and Pavol Rusko reached an agreement is still unknown. On the contrary, it is now known that Russia himself is facing charges of ordering the murder of his former business partner Sylvia Volzova.
Kočner, as a man on the border between the underworld and legal business, also figured in one of the most famous SIS games during the Mečiarism. Together with Michal Kováč Jr., Kočner was involved in the Technopol case of 1992. It involved the kidnapping of Kováč Jr. to Austria, which was arranged by Ivan Lexa on the instructions of the top leadership of the HZDS. The intricate case, which is still a trauma for Slovak justice today, also brought about assassinations and international scandals.
Kočner was convicted of economic crimes and faces further trials. However, he managed to get away with ordering the murder of Kuciak for a long time. This is also thanks to the constant conspiracy of Fico and his partisans, who in dozens of press conferences and media appearances, or even at rallies, question the investigation and spread hoaxes. All the while they know the details of the investigation and Marian Kočner has been caught sending links to Fico through his lawyer .
Another person Kuciak targeted in the final weeks before his death was Jozef Brhel, an oligarch close to the ruling Smer-SD party. In early February 2018, Kuciak wrote about the IT firm Anext and its deal with the state. It was based in the businessman’s building and, according to Transparency International, its shareholder structure raises doubts as to whether the owners are the real owners or planted persons.
Kuciak also discussed the Košice branch of the Směr-SD MPs and their connections to companies that receive subsidies, public contracts, or are associated with various scandals on the Biztweet website. Even then, he was the target of legal threats.
However, Ján Kuciak did not only target MPs from Robert Fico’s party. He also wrote a text about Roman Vrt’a, a member of the opposition Sloboda a solidarita party, who drew unjustified subsidies and did business with tax fraudster Ladislav Bašternák, who is known from the Bonaparte case.
He also focused on the subsidies received by the companies of oligarch Miroslav Bödör. Kuciak’s attention did not escape the background of the financing of the Čistý den resocialisation centre, which, after long disputes, had its accreditation withdrawn by the Ministry of Labour on suspicion of child abuse. The case is a disgusting mirror of the Slovak elite – despite years of reports of abuse of girls being treated for drug addiction in the facility, the state has long left the facility alone. A number of politicians have visited the facility without further explanation. Among others, the then Minister of Labour went there at least once, and a car accident on a given working day raised questions and speculation. The tabloids published that during the crash, paramedics found a large amount of cash and condoms. The later controversial Speaker of Parliament Boris Kollár was also in contact with one of the girls. All of this was accompanied by a disgusting media game, where the girls’ testimony was denied by the management of the facility, politicians stood behind the management, and it was later revealed that some of them motivated the girls to publish their communications with rival politicians.
After Kuciak’s murder, President Andrej Kiska called for a reconstruction of the government or early elections.
“I have been waiting for a week to see what political steps the ruling majority would take to try to ease tensions and restore confidence. However, no solution seems to be on the cards,” Kiska said in a media statement.
He added that he was ready to guide the country through the difficult situation. However, if he was expecting a conciliatory response from Prime Minister Robert Fico, he was mistaken. The prime minister said he was shocked by the president’s words.
“The President read out a statement that was obviously not written in Slovakia. It has the handwriting of people who do not know Slovak constitutional customs. They are pursuing other goals,” Fico said. He rejected any proposals to reconstruct the government.
