Coalition to Protect OKD Miners Protests Zdenek Bakala's Hilton Head Estate
08 August 2018 - 3:00PM
JCN Newswire (English)
The Coalition has launched protests at controversial Czech
billionaire's residence to hold him accountable for perpetrating
what they call the "fraud of the century" which in turn gave birth
to the Ostrava Housing Crisis
HILTON HEAD, Aug 8, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - The Coalition to
Protect OKD Miners ("the Coalition"), an organization created to
advocate on behalf of Czech coal miners, has launched protests at
the Hilton Head, SC estate of Zdenek Bakala. Protesters, dressed as
coal miners, descended on Bakala's estate to demand Bakala make
amends for his past alleged wrongdoings.
The protest at Bakala's estate marks the fourth such demonstration
that the coalition has undertaken in the past week. Previously, the
coalition set up rallies outside the M&T Bank branch in New
York and M&T Bank Headquarters in Buffalo to protest M&T
Bank's role as security agent for a housing fund which has left
Czech coal miners at risk of homelessness (via its subsidiary
Wilmington Trust) and also outside the Berkshire Hathaway
headquarters (as a shareholder of M&T Bank). The main aim of
the coalition is to urge a resolution of the Ostrava Housing
Crisis.
The coalition accuses Mr. Bakala of cheating workers, taxpayers and
investors alike with vast financial scams. Among the most serious
of the allegations was that Bakala indirectly purchased the Czech
coal company, OKD, from the Czech government at a below-market rate
due to corrupt deal-making. OKD was made a subsidiary of New World
Resources N.V. ("NWR"), a publicly traded international energy firm
which he also controlled at the time.
He subsequently is alleged to have plundered OKD by taking
excessive profits and dividends. Numerous investors lost money
betting on OKD -- through buying NWR stock -- based on allegedly
false promises made by Bakala. When the company started to fail,
the Coalition alleges that Bakala swiftly sold off housing units,
promised contractually to miners at discounted pricing, to Fondy
Bydleni, a Luxembourg housing fund which owns the Czech property
firm RESIDOMO and backed by Blackstone and Round Hill Capital. The
housing fund has refused to honor the reduced price housing unit
contract leaving the coal miners at risk of losing their homes.
Moreover, investors in NWR's Initial Public Offering and those who
subsequently bought NWR stock on the London and Warsaw exchanges
took substantial losses which, according to the coalition, are due
to Bakala's purposefully misleading statements to investors and his
failure to provide necessary disclosures.
More details and documentation of the aforementioned allegations
can be found at the coalition's website www.StopBakala.org.
Bakala is currently facing civil litigation as well as criminal
investigation by authorities in the United States, Switzerland, the
United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Poland and the EU. In the Czech
Republic, the special investigation committee of the Czech
Parliament is investigating the issue directly. The Coalition has
accused Bakala of attempting to off-shore his assets from the Czech
Republic, including his famed Forum Karlin property, to avoid
liabilities.
The coalition issued the following statement.
"The Coalition will hold Bakala and those who associate with him
accountable for acts of fraud against investors, taxpayers and
workers. While his victims suffer, Bakala enjoys the jet-setting
lifestyle between his vineyard in South Africa, his villa in
Switzerland and his estate in Hilton Head at their expense. We will
continue to hold peaceful protests so that Bakala and his
associates are reminded of the crimes they have committed and the
victims harmed. We will not rest until the stakeholders involved
put a solution together to solve Ostrava Housing Crisis and until
Bakala is held accountable both civilly and criminally."
Contact
Dan Taylor
Coalition to Protect OKD Miners
+1-929-224-0939
contact@StopBakala.org
This press release was issued through EmailWire.Com, a global
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Source: Coalition to Protect OKD Miners
Copyright 2018 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
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