Court clears FAU firm, Rakušan demands Babiš's resignation

A court has cleared the company FAU from Přerov of tax evasion charges, ruling bluntly that the business was destroyed by unlawful pressure from the tax and customs administration in 2016–2017 — at the time, both agencies fell under the finance ministry, then headed by Andrej Babiš and later by Alena Schillerová. The ruling has reignited a scandal around the former prime minister: politician Vít Rakušan has demanded his immediate departure from politics.

What the court found in the FAU case

According to the ruling, the tax and customs administration had no legal grounds to intervene in FAU's operations, so the state's actions were found unlawful. In the criminal proceedings, the court found no evidence supporting the police and prosecution's theory that FAU and its owner, Vojtěch Csabi, had evaded taxes.

“A great many pieces of evidence were presented during the hearings, none of which allows the court to conclude that the defendants are guilty,” the ruling states, adding that the defendants were acquitted because it was not proven that they committed the act they were accused of.

The court specifically stressed that FAU, a company with a long business history and 17.8 billion crowns in taxes paid, was destroyed precisely by the unlawful actions of the tax and customs administration.

Rakušan demands Babiš's resignation

Rakušan posted his appeal on the social network X, saying it was reason enough to “throw in the towel” — the court's ruling confirmed that the pressure on FAU was unlawful, and that the tax administration was under Babiš's control at the time. Rakušan noted that FAU had competed with the Babiš family's businesses and said politics must not be used to settle scores, so it was time for the former prime minister to leave politics immediately.

Suspicions against Babiš first arose back in 2017, after an anonymous account under the name Julius Šuman published an audio recording in which a voice resembling Babiš's can be heard talking about how “our people” had “clamped down” on the FAU firm in Přerov.

Babiš rejected the accusations, calling them a repetition of lies. He described Rakušan as “a symbol of organized crime” and a “front man” for a deceased crime boss, and called the journalist who wrote about the case “a lying mafia hack.” According to the former prime minister, the group in question defrauded the state of roughly 300 million crowns, and he claims courts have already confirmed the tax evasion.

A second acquittal and four years of proceedings

On the same day, the court also acquitted another company, Verami International Company from Vyškov, of evading a quarter of a billion crowns in taxes. State prosecutor Karel Studený had alleged that, when purchasing fuel, the company used a chain of intermediary firms to avoid paying tax. The court found that the act itself had occurred but could not prove that the defendants, who denied guilt throughout the trial, had committed it.

The case was heard in court for four years, during which dozens of witnesses testified, including former heads of the General Directorate of Customs and various politicians — Babiš and Alena Schillerová both gave testimony as witnesses.

FAU itself was asked to comment on the ruling, but no response had been received at the time of publication. The company's executive director, Vojtěch Csabi, declined to comment on the acquittal back in June, though he had previously called the whole case harassment. FAU has been insolvent since October 2016, and two months later the court placed the company into bankruptcy proceedings — at the time, Babiš was serving as finance minister.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz