Apart from its chairman, how many other sponsors of PORG are under criminal investigation?



If you're Appian you know it, clap your hands!

PORG receives millions of crowns in donations and although the school publicly acknowledges its donors, it has so far refused to reveal how much each of them gives.

When the school’s board, which is chaired by Martin Roman and packed with his family members and business associates, decides from whom it can accept money, it surely considers the risks associated with donors known to be under criminal investigation.

Apparently not. One of the school’s most generous donors, its chairman, is himself under investigation for suspected related party transactions between CEZ and Skoda Power, and for the sale of I&C Energo and Mibrag. An examination of the school’s latest annual report reveals other sponsors of interest to the criminal police, such as Jiri Belohlav of Metrostav for the Blanka tunnel project and Daniel Benes of CEZ for CEEI’s spent nuclear fuel dump at Temelin.

The media has written at length about the investigations involving Belohlav, Benes and Roman. However, there is a fourth, much less known sponsor that has only recently been asked to help the police with their enquiries. This is a family of Prague property developers called Samii.

Late last year, an obscure company called Alkatria owned by an offshore company sold Zdenek Bakala’s Economia building in Prague 7 to the labour ministry for almost Kc 300 million. The transaction is now under criminal investigation (see Ceska pozice's coverage of the issue here).

According to the labour ministry, one beneficial owner of Alkatria is an 86 year-old man living in London called Cyrus Samii. Samii is represented in the Czech Republic by his son Thomas. Thomas Samii is the owner and representative of numerous property companies in Prague, including Ungelt Services, the firm listed as a PORG sponsor in the school’s latest annual report.

We have no idea how much Samii gave PORG. The true nature of the relationship between the Samii family and Martin Roman is also unclear. Perhaps it is limited to that between a sponsor and the grateful chairman of the board of directors of the school the Samiis have kindly sponsored. Or perhaps Martin Roman is a hidden business partner of the Samii family.

Certainly, there is compelling circumstantial evidence of their physical proximity to each other. It may be coincidental that the Samii family co-developed with Finep the land, known as Na Hvezdarne, immediately adjacent to Martin Roman’s high-security housing compound in Velka Chuchle. The same family was also the co-developer behind the Ungelt courtyard project in the mid-1990s, where Milan Hejl, another PORG board member and longstanding business partner of Roman’s, has located his company headquarters.

MfD claimed last week that one of CEZ’s suppliers, Skoda JS, has given the school Kc 40 million. This morning, the newspaper claims that another of CEZ’s suppliers, Telefonica, has given the school Kc 30 million.

In an effort to appease angry parents and teachers, Martin Buransky has now been put on the school's board of directors as a parent representative. Buransky is indeed a parent. But he is also a long standing supervisory board member of PORG with close ties to CEZ. For eight years, he was responsible for Deloitte's public sector business. Needless to say, CEZ is a key Deloitte client. In fact, I am surprised it has not appeared as a PORG sponsor yet.

Compared to Metrostav, CEZ, Telefonica and Skoda JS, the Samiis are small fry indeed. But small fry make good bait to catch big fish.