Peter Kažimír, was convicted of bribery on April 3rd by Slovakia’s Special Criminal Court and ordered to pay a fine of €100,000 or serve two years in jail.
In a ruling first reported publicly on Thursday 13th April, the governor of Slovakia’s central bank – Národná banka Slovenska – Peter Kažimír, was convicted of bribery on April 3rd by Slovakia’s Special Criminal Court, Pezinok. Kažimír was also ordered to pay a fine of €100,000 or serve two years in jail. The verdict was issued without a trial, however, and the state prosecution service appealed it shortly afterward, sending the case back to court. Kazimir also could appeal.
Kažimír, a former Slovakian finance minister, is also a member of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council, which makes monetary policy for the Eurozone and the European Union, administers the foreign exchange reserves of EU member states, engages in foreign exchange operations, and defines the intermediate monetary objectives and key interest rate of the EU.
The charges against Kažimír include crimes of corruption related to the tax audits of multiple companies. Kazimir is accused of handing a bribe of 48,000 euros ($53,000) to the head of the country’s tax office related to a tax investigation of private companies.
The case dates to when Kazimir served as finance minister from 2012 to 2019 in the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico and was a member of Fico’s Smer-Social Democracy party before taking over his central bank job.
Smer lost the 2020 general election and was replaced by a coalition government whose parties campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket.
The new government made fighting corruption a key policy issue. Since it took power, a number of senior officials, police officers, judges, prosecutors, politicians and businesspeople have been charged with corruption and other crimes.
The court’s ruling was made by a criminal warrant – based on evidence submitted during the investigation – and not in a full trial.
Kažimír has denied the charges and claimed his innocence stating “Despite the criminal warrant, which has not even been delivered to me yet, I am innocent, I have committed no crime and I have no doubt that I will defend myself before the judge at the main hearing or before the courts of appeal in Slovakia or in Europe.”
Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger has called on Kažimír to step down, but the European Central Bank’s Governing Council have yet to comment and Kažimír is still listed as a member on their website. With Der Netherlands Bank potentially also embroiled in a corruption charge, it remains to be seen what and who else will be uncovered in the coming months.
Story to be updated when trial commences likely in June 2023.
