This chapter also includes a forgotten but indelible figure named Vít Bárta. Although this gives the impression that we are writing about someone who was in politics and then left it, the opposite is true. Bárta was and is behind many populist business projects that have attempted to penetrate top politics. For example, he was behind Petr Robejšek’s political entity, the Realists, and helped to blow the brown aura of hatred around Tomio Okamura.
His bright and functionally short political career began with the elections in May 2010, when he ran as a non-party candidate for the Věci veřejné party in Prague and at the same time worked as the party’s election manager. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies and became a member of Nečas’ cabinet as transport minister. After joining the government, he gradually relinquished direct control over the ABL security agency, which is owned by his family, following political pressure. Of course, only in appearance.
At the beginning of April 2011, the former chair of Věci veřejných, Jaroslav Škárka, and the chair of the parliamentary club, Kristýna Kočí, accused Bárta of bribing party colleagues and filed criminal charges against him. On 8 April 2011, the emerging case of the financing of the party’s MPs, together with other circumstances, in particular the declassification of the ABL “Strategy 2009-2014”, led to the resignation of Vít Bárta as a minister. On Monday, 11 April, the Prime Minister handed in Bárta’s resignation to the President of the Republic.
Bárta denied that he bribed anyone and claimed the loans were loans.On 13 April 2012, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for bribery at the District Court in Prague, which was suspended for 30 months. Bárta appealed at the time. In November 2012, the Municipal Court in Prague, as an appeals court, overturned the original sentence and returned the case to the District Court for a new hearing, which in January 2013 acquitted Bárta of the charges based on a binding legal opinion of the appeals court.
Even before the Court of Appeal’s decision, the Supreme Court intervened in the case, finding that the part of the proceedings involving the defendant Bárta relating to the actions of the Věci Veřejné parliamentary club were covered by parliamentary immunity and therefore exempting him from the jurisdiction of the criminal authorities to that extent.
In April 2014, police began investigating whether Jaroslav Škárka and Kristýna Kočí had defamed Bárta. It did so at Bárta’s initiative. After his final acquittal, he filed a criminal complaint for false accusations against Kočí, who turned to the police because of the bribes within the party and appeared as a witness and victim in the trial. The police said she did not commit a crime.
However, due to the police investigation in November 2013, Bárta resigned as chair of Věce veřejných. His subsequent attempts to enter top politics directly failed. But he did not give up. Bárta also wanted CZK 20 million from the state for interference in his personal and political life, and CZK 3 million for maladministration after his acquittal.
While legally embattled, he successfully did business with the state and it was his controversial SBS service that brought down the government . The policy was sunk by documents obtained by the media. They clearly stated that while still CEO of the private security service ABL, Barta planned to enter politics as a business plan to grow the company.
An excerpt from the six-page Strategy 2009-2014 of the private security service ABL of Vít Bárta from 2008:
“The development of comprehensive security services for economic elites such as Chrenek, Babiš, Prague, or the development of new categories of customers in the public administration in health care, education, state offices, local government, social services.”
As the analysis of the contracts with the public administration showed, Bart’s plans came true. After a short break in contracts following the scandal, the company has recovered and is once again one of those that are at home in the public administration.
First, however, it had to at least ostensibly cleanse itself from the negative shadow of the ABL brand. In March 2012, it changed its logo and name – the new name was Mark2 Corporation Czech a.s. Vít Bárta’s management and his family members continued to serve on the company’s governing bodies. He founded the company together with his brother. Key positions were occupied by his mother Jiřina Bárta and his siblings Matěj and Stanislava.
The company’s success under the M2C brand is already evident from the customer list itself. The company has been hired for security and other security services by the Prague Transport Company, Václav Havel Airport, the State Office for Nuclear Safety, Pardubice Airport and the Ministry of Defence.
The most lucrative orders are orders in Prague and Brno. Tens of millions of crowns per year were billed by Mark2 Corporation to the Czech Technical University in Prague, Masaryk University and Brno University of Technology. The capital city also provides nutritious business cooperation by guarding the Transport Company, while in Ústí nad Labem Bárta scores points in the Fire Brigade. A huge business with national significance is the success at dozens of branches of the Czech Post, the Railway Infrastructure Administration and Budějovice Budvar.
After the collapse of the political project Věci Veřejné (Public Affairs), Vít Bárta continued to lobby extremists. He met twenty-one-year-old Sergei Pavlyuk, a pro-Russian blogger and then a student at the University of Economics in Prague.
Among other things, he impressed with his high level of involvement in the 2013 presidential election campaign. He wrote articles in which he described the candidate Karel Schwarzenberg as a Bolshevik and a participant in some great capitalist conspiracy of politicians. Vit Bárta made Pavlyuk his assistant and business partner. He was intrigued by the idea of direct democracy, about which Pavlyuk wrote fervently, albeit in obscure combinations with already known extreme political ideas from abroad.
Vít Bárta sought support for direct democracy from other political entities. He succeeded with Tomio Okamura. He built his previous political entity, Úsvit, on the idea of direct democracy. Vít Bárta even tried to get into the lower house in its colours. However, the reincarnation of the political business failed and he could only influence the party outside the parliament.
Pavljuk, on the other hand, anchored directly in Úsvit. He became an assistant to Radim Fiala, a key Okamura partner. He stayed by the MP’s side even after the break-up of Úsvit and thus moved on to the subsequent Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) project. Pavljuk’s entrepreneurial activity shows that he was never and is never an ordinary assistant to an MP. The man whom the SPD hides from public view became a member of the board of directors of IF Holding in mid-2015, the same time as the SPD movement was founded. This is a company owned by Radim Fiala.
IF Holding was also a shareholder in IFP Servis, where Pavljuk held the same position as in IF Holding during the same period. He is also active in the company Videoefekt, which he took over from Jan Zilvar, a member of the leadership of the Úsvit – National Coalition movement.
Ivo Rittig
The third of the godfathers attached to the Prague City Hall and the Prague Transport Company is businessman Ivo Rittig.
His main official, legal business was running fashion boutiques.
Godfather Rittig has been prosecuted in connection with several different cases. The most well-known case is the embezzlement of money from the Prague transport company through the production of tickets. Rittig’s dealings also involved solar parks.
Of the top politicians, Rittig cultivated the closest relations with Petr Bendel during his time at the Transport and Agriculture ministries.
For former MP Vladimír Doležal, he used his contacts with the anti-corruption police to obtain details about the criminal proceedings against him.
Roman Jurecko
West Bohemia and its economic relations were dominated by Roman Jurečko, a former waiter, toilet operator and local councillor for two terms. As a multiple convicted offender, he was assessed as a suitable nominee to manage public property as an officer in the municipal company Plzeňská teplárenská. This rogue also exercised his expertise in hospitality for several years on the board of the Railway Infrastructure Administration.
Jiří Pospíšil, a collector of many positions and members of various parties, probably owes at least part of his political career to him. On the other hand, during the time of Jiří Pospíšil’s tenure, the godfather, in a strange way, got into the legendary Faculty of Law of the University of West Bohemia. Unfortunately, his admission documents were shredded. Both friends Jurečko and Pospíšil, alongside others of their ilk, vacationed at the legendary clientelist stagecoach in Tuscany (see 5.5).
Jureček’s rather colorful criminal career began in the 1990s with an attack on a public official. 10 years later, he managed to get off with a ridiculous fine and a driving ban for drunk driving. However, the driving ban didn’t stop him from driving on peacefully. In 2002, a conviction for obstruction of official authority followed. Then he got off with only probation again.
Pavel Dlouhy
Pavel Dlouhý, a businessman, former representative of the town of Hluboká and member of important ODS bodies, was known as the Prince of Hluboká. In his time, he was said to be able to run the whole of South Bohemia from the restaurant U Hubert. It was said that his estate extended from Třeboň to Šumava. Without his blessing, no decision was made by the politicians of Dodea, because he was able to “arrange” business in forestry, construction and property in the South Bohemian towns and regions. Karel Schwarzenberg, the then chairman of TOP 09, asked the ODS Prime Minister Nečas how he had managed to accumulate in South Bohemia in twenty years the property that his family had built up over three hundred years. He did not get an answer.
Martin Kuba, the former Minister of Industry, who is currently experiencing a restart of his political career, also comes from his principality. Kuba’s earlier nomination to the ministerial seat and to the top leadership of ODS was considered the work of the South Bohemian godfather Dlouhy. Kuba’s activities as a governor in South Bohemia are also demonstrably linked to several of Dlouhy’s interest projects, to whom Kuba still goes for “princely” advice.
The power of the godfather is best demonstrated by the fact that he is untouchable by officials or police officers in his own region. This is exactly what happened to Long when he exceeded the speed limit by more than 50 km/h. The offence, where many thousands of dollars in fines or driving bans are routinely imposed, was “dealt with” by the authorities for so long that it became time-barred and the prince got off scot-free.
Patrik Oulický
Businessman and odyssey godfather Patrik Oulický had “mastered” North Bohemia. Petr Gandalovič’s engagement at the Ministry of Agriculture depended on his work in the region.
He was suspected of tax evasion. There was also talk of strange public contracts in North Bohemia, which were unusually often awarded to the Severočeská stavební company.
Another conflict with the law arose in connection with his godfather’s nest in the protected area of the Bohemian Central Highlands. He did not bother with some building permits when building it. It was only after reports of his insolence became public that he obtained the permits in an equally suspicious manner.
