"Does the embassy pay property taxes? Of course not!" says Thomas Prose, who was the Czech honorary consul to Michigan and Ohio from 2004 until last month and has since paid the taxes. "Does the consulate in New York pay property taxes? Of course not!"

Prose, 49, deeded his $4.3 million mansion to the Czech government in 2004. He maintains that as property of a foreign country, his home was tax-exempt. He rejects the government's criticism, saying he was pressured to resign because of bad press and jealousy in the Czech diplomatic corps.

The Czech Embassy in Washington, D.C., says it knew nothing of the property transfer and did not know Prose was claiming tax exemption, and embassy spokesman Petr Janoucek insists Prose was acting completely unilaterally and "without the embassy and without the Foreign Affairs Ministry knowing about it."

The Foreign Affairs Ministry has not answered repeated requests for comment on the bitter back-and-forth, a controversy that raises questions about how closely the Foreign Affairs Ministry is monitoring the people ostensibly charged with representing Czech interests abroad.

Home or consulate?

Ambassadors generally oversee consul generals, who operate consulates essentially as branches of foreign embassies, though some consuls have a great deal more autonomy than others in representing a government abroad.

Because not every government can afford to maintain multiple consulates, they often name honorary consuls to look after interests in given regions. These volunteer, largely ceremonial positions are often given to businessmen or affluent citizens with some connection to the country they're representing. But honorary consuls are empowered to carry out official functions such as passport and visa issues and are often the first to respond when a national gets into trouble abroad.

Czech embassies abroad nominate candidates for honorary consuls, whose names are then

forwarded to the Foreign Affairs Ministry for approval. The Czech Republic has 21 official consuls and 128 honorary consuls worldwide, 15 of whom are scattered throughout the United States. Prose was one of them.

The town of Northville, Michigan, population 6,511, lies 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Detroit and may seem like an odd place to host an honorary Czech consulate. But Prose, a successful physician who owns a nationwide geriatrics practice and says his grandmother was Czech, was an excellent candidate, Janoucek says.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry approved Prose's appointment July 1, 2004, and shortly thereafter he was, he says, sworn in at a lavish ceremony attended by the Czech senators and members of the Foreign Affairs Ministry on the grounds of his 6-acre (2.43-hectare) property. That same day he officially transferred his mansion and property to the Czech government for $1, according to Northville tax records. But he made the transfer contingent on one thing: The home and property would revert back to him in 2010, when his post was due to expire.

Prose says he spent his own money stocking his mansion with Czech artwork and literature worth more than $500,000. He paid the salaries and health insurance for a staff of three — two secretaries and a translator — who worked in the mansion on official business. He entertained regularly, also at his own expense, and says he helped 2,000 Czechs during his tenure.

Prose says he worked to raise the Czech Republic's profile among Michigan businesses, in particular its automotive and pharmaceutical industries, and that his efforts helped promote foreign investment in the Czech Republic.

"I think the downfall for me really was being a victim of my own success," he says. "I think I offended people [in Washington] because I was doing more than they were and they were paid and I wasn't."

The tax man cometh

As recently as last month, Prose owed the town of Northville $211,157 in outstanding taxes for 2004 and 2005.

Despite his claims of exemption, Michigan tax authorities say the caveat Prose placed on his mansion transfer — that it would revert to him after his consul term — made the transfer not a true change of ownership.

While acknowledging that honorary consulates are not generally tax-exempt like embassies and consulates are, Prose maintains that the U.S. attorney's office in Michigan sided with him and ruled that his property was indeed tax-exempt.

The 1963 Vienna Convention also appears to back Prose's position. Article 60 reads: "Consular premises of a consular post headed by an honorary consular officer of which the sending State is the owner or lessee shall be exempt from all national, regional or municipal dues and taxes whatsoever."

Janouček adds that honorary consuls receive very little support from the embassy in Washington: "a flag, a set of stamps, the state logo, the state insignia, and that's it." Prose also says Czech statutes for honorary consulates "required and authorized me to have an office."

But do such apparent allowances cover an entire home, in which a wife and two children also live?

"I believe there is a good deal of gray area," says Igor Lukeš, who was appointed honorary Czech consul in Boston in September.

Lukeš, who teaches international relations at Boston University, says he uses one room in his house for consular business and does not maintain a staff. He says he gets no money from the Czech government, and he pays his property taxes.

"How absurd that an honorary consulate should be exempt from the laws of a state, especially tax laws," Lukeš says. "If you live in the house, it's not an official function."

Northville was ready to take on Prose and his tax-exemption claim in Michigan land court, but in the end Prose opted to pay the taxes Oct. 19 after the Czech Embassy called and asked him to do so.

"The embassy said the only reason this was an issue was because it was reported in the newspapers; otherwise it was no big deal," Prose says. "I was told that as a standard operating procedure, if there is any controversy about an honorary consul, they end the relationship."