Pitr one step nearer to extradition

On the run for more than four years, fugitive businessman Tomáš Pitr is one step closer to extradition back to the Czech Republic.

Pitr was arrested in the luxury Swiss resort town of St. Moritz in July 2010 and cleared for extradition by the end of the year. He appealed that decision and saw a Swiss court deny his appeal Sept. 14 but, in a last ditch effort to remain at large, has appealed that verdict with the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne.

"The decision has confirmed that the conditions for extradition were fulfilled, particularly the one where criminal acts cited in verdicts and in the extradition request are also crimes punishable under Swiss law," said Tereza Palečková, a spokeswoman for the Justice Ministry.

The court, in the town of Bellinzona, rejected Pitr's argument that the criminal charges leveled against him are politically motivated.

PURSUING PITR

2006 Prague Municipal Court sentences Pitr to eight and a half years in prison for tax evasion and unlawful share trading
May 2006 Prague High Court reduces the sentence to five years
June 2007 Pitr fails to turn up for his prison sentence
Jan. 8, 2010 Prague Municipal Court sentences Pitr in absentia to six years in jail over role in illegal share trading
April 15, 2010 Justice Minister Daniela Kovářová seeks a Supreme Court rehearing of Pitr's tax fraud case over suspected irregularities in the original trial
July 27, 2010 Pitr arrested in Switzerland
Aug. 9, 2010 The Czech Republic requests his extradition
Dec. 17, 2010 Swiss authorities approve the extradition; Pitr appeals
Sep. 14, 2011 Pitr's appeal is denied, clearing him for extradition; Pitr appeals again

In July, a number of Czech-language media reports indicated Pitr might be released as a year had passed since he had been taken into custody. The Swiss Justice Ministry immediately denied these reports. The same month a Swiss court denied Pitr's request to post some 23 million Kč in bail. A similar 69 million Kč request was denied last year.  

Pitr has been wanted under Czech, European and international arrest warrants since 2007 after he failed to turn up to serve a five-year prison sentence for tax evasion and unlawful share trading.

He is said to have defrauded the government out of 51 million Kč by using fake invoices to obtain tax refunds. The former food and oil business baron at one time co-owned dozens of companies with a combined revenue of 20 billion Kč, and was considered one of the richest people in the country.

In 2010, Pitr was also was sentenced in absentia to an additional six years in prison for controversial trading in shares of food companies Setuza and Milo Surovarny, in which he and others were accused of stripping an estimated 700 million Kč in company assets.

Pitr is one of a high-profile trio of international businessmen who have evaded Czech law enforcement authorities in recent years.

His fellow fugitive financiers are Radovan Krejčíř - now residing in South Africa and whom Pitr visited in the Seychelles in 2005 - and Viktor Kožený, who is living in the Bahamas while he is being tried in absentia in Manhattan, accused of stealing $400 million from investors.

Journalists have also long connected Pitr with controversial businessman František Mrázek, who was considered the "Godfather of Czech Organized Crime" before he was gunned down in January 2006. That crime has never been solved.

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com