Czech opposition claims 100,000 Unipetrol shareholders lost out in Orlen deal

The party's deputy head, Ivan Langer, based his conclusions after examining the official report of a meeting between Marek Belka and Zdenek Doleżel, who at that time was the head of the Czech PM Jiri Paroubek's cabinet. Langer reportedly believes that former Treasury Minister Jacek Socha and the head of Orlen's supervisory board, Jacek Bartkiewicz, are also guilty of certain irregularities. According to Langer, the Polish politicians insisted that the Czech securities and stock exchange commission enabled Orlen to buy off Unipetrol's shares from its shareholders in a shortened period of time. As a result, he believes some 100,000 shareholders of the Czech company made losses. (Parkiet, Sept. 24-25, p. 4) A.F.