The European Prosecutor’s Office believes that the Slovak brewery misused European funds and manipulated public procurement.
There are a total of six suspects, including two Slovak officials.
It is probably the Karpat brewery, which went bankrupt last year.
The European Prosecutor’s Office is investigating a brewery in Slovakia suspected of subsidy fraud for more than three million euros. In connection with this, last week NAKA arrested six people, including two public officials, in the Carpathian action, and released them after a hearing.
The police did not want to confirm any names or the name of the company, but according to the description it is the bankrupt Karpat microbrewery. He appeared in the media six years ago in the European funds case of the then Minister of Education Petr Plavčan, who eventually resigned in this connection. As a minister in Fico’s government, Plavčan also allocated subsidies that were supposed to go to innovations and research for schools to breweries and distilleries.
One of them was the Karpat brewery of Distrib Capital, which received 3.6 million euros from European money. It was 45 percent of the total investment, the rest was paid by the company itself. However, in 2019, she ran into losses and never recovered from them. In the end, it went bankrupt, and the state, along with other creditors, is collecting money in bankruptcy.
What is the story of the brewery
Pivovar Karpat was owned by Andrej and Miriam Sabovčíkovci through the company Distrib Capital. European funds from the Ministry of Education, the aforementioned 3.6 million euros, also helped them get started. Karpat was ranked among the largest microbreweries in the country with a production capacity of seven thousand hectoliters and sales of 8 million euros.
The brewery was successful at first, even brewing craft beers for the Tesco Finest private brand. The company’s profit was in the tens of thousands of euros every year, but it never exceeded the 100,000 mark. In 2019, he found himself in a loss of 266,000 euros for the first time, and the loss was repeated for the next two years.
You need at least a standard subscription to read.
Are you a subscriber? Log in