Mamut case in Czechia: 107,000 iPhones worth CZK 4 billion missing

The high-profile Mamut case in Czechia is entering its most intense phase: according to investigators and the parties to the dispute, 107,000 iPhones and 361,000 AirPods earbuds vanished from the supply chain, and the damage exceeds 4 billion crowns. The main suspect, businessman Břetislav Janoušek, disappeared in March 2023.

It all began as what looked like a brilliant business model. Mobile operators and leasing companies, above all T-Mobile and J&T Leasing, supplied thousands of iPhones and AirPods to the online shop Mamut, or more precisely to the company Mammoth from the Plus4U group. The devices were to be leased out to end customers through firms of 53-year-old entrepreneur Břetislav Janoušek, a native of the Nymburk district.

Everything worked until March 2023. Then Janoušek disappeared, and the payments stopped with him.

A dispute over “paper” phones

The National Organised Crime Agency suspects Janoušek and Mammoth's managers, brothers Ondřej and Jan Mezinský, of fraud. However, no charges have been brought against them so far. The investigation continues, and in May police carried out high-profile searches at the premises of the firm Unicorn.

Meanwhile, the main fight over who will pay the billion-crown bill has moved to the bankruptcy court. The insolvency administrator has contested a significant part of J&T Leasing's huge claims over suspicions of sham transactions.

Lawyers for the Plus4U holding point to logistical inconsistencies uncovered by court-ordered audits. In their words, transporting 107,000 iPhones and hundreds of thousands of AirPods would have required dozens of loaded trucks, yet the suppliers operate only with paper delivery-and-acceptance records. This, the lawyers say, suggests that a large share of the deals existed only virtually, as part of a “carousel” scheme.

The financial companies and operators reject this. They insist that the online shop accepted the goods and bore full responsibility for them, and they demand their money back from Mammoth's parent structures. Representatives of the Unicorn and Plus4U holdings reply that they were victims of an elaborate deception that individual people among the suppliers may also have been involved in. Unicorn board member David Kimr said that Mammoth was used for illegal purposes behind the back of top management, and that if sham deals were concluded with the knowledge of the suppliers' managers, it is a failure of their own risk management.

“Apple hunters” search for the phones

To prove its version, Plus4U launched a project called “Apple Hunters”. In an open database, anyone can check the serial number (IMEI) of their iPhone. If the phone is from the “lost” batch, the finder is promised a reward of 100,000 crowns. The goal is not to seize the device but to physically locate it.

Such a step could become weighty evidence. If it turns out that iPhones with the stated IMEIs are activated in Asia, or are held by people who legally bought them through entirely different channels, it would confirm that T-Mobile and J&T Leasing invoiced for goods that never actually reached the Mamut shop.

The outcome of the case will set a precedent for all of Czech corporate banking. If the courts find the claims of the operators and leasing companies to be fictitious, these giants will have to write off billions in losses, and shareholders could demand the heads of top managers. If, on the other hand, it is proven that the phones really disappeared within the structures around Mamut, one of the most successful Czech IT holdings could take a serious hit.

The case has occupied courts and police for three years. According to business media, the subject of the future dispute is a strange model in which goods went from T-Mobile and J&T Leasing through Mamut.cz to Janoušek's firms SBJ Trade and J.A.E., and from there were supposed to reach employees and relatives of the Unicorn group of billionaire Vladimír Kovář. He questions this. Mammoth went bankrupt in 2023, the goods have still not been found, and it is unclear where the almost half a billion crowns in commissions received by Janoušek went.

The man who disappeared

Janoušek's exact whereabouts are not publicly known. According to Deník.cz, he is not in the wanted-persons database, so law enforcement apparently knows how to contact him. He dropped out of sight of investigators and Plus4U management in March 2023, right after his firms J.A.E. and SBJ Trade stopped paying for the Apple equipment. Investigative steps are proceeding without him, and police in Czechia have seized expensive real estate and property registered to him or his firms. Only unofficial versions say he is abroad.

Janoušek trained as a bookseller and built a successful career, rising to CEO of the Neoluxor (now Luxor) bookstore chain. In business circles he was known as a charismatic, eloquent and persuasive dealer who could quickly win partners' full trust. Around 2016 he began cooperating externally with the Plus4U group, but was never a full-time employee, shareholder or board member there. In 2018 he came to the management of the subsidiary Mammoth, which ran the Mamut.cz shop, with an expansion proposal: intermediation in wholesale leasing of Apple equipment. Given his reputation from Luxor, management had no reason to distrust him.

Source: denik.cz