Strnad’s minister. We uncovered a hidden money pipeline between Prague and Bratislava.
According to Seznam Zprávy, an investment platform backed by Czech billionaire and arms dealer Michal Strnad is paying the law firm of the Slovak defense minister. Robert Kaliňák is thus suspected of systemic bias.
Czech arms manufacturer Michal Strnad and his empire have enjoyed months of rapid growth.
Interest in the company’s shares when it went public was also boosted by deals he concluded in Slovakia. For example, the Slovak army ordered Tatra trucks worth CZK 25 billion. And that’s not all. ZVS Holding, which is managed by Strnad’s CSG holding company, last December won a framework contract from the Slovak Ministry of Defense, headed by Robert Kaliňák, to supply artillery and tank ammunition for a record 60 billion euros.
As evidenced by several months of investigation by Seznam Zprávy, the Slovak minister has another, as yet unknown financial connection to Strnad. According to new findings by Seznam Zprávy, Kaliňák’s law firm Kallan Legal, in which the minister holds a 70% stake, has millions in revenue from the Czech crowdfunding platform FinGood, in which Michal Strnad invested and whose operations were co-decided by Strnad’s managers from CSG.
“We sent them 2 to 3 million crowns a year. For FinGood, it was a large amount, as we were a small company,” one of the company’s managers told Seznam Zprávy. They signed the contract in the summer of 2021.
His testimony was confirmed by Vít Endler, former managing director and minority co-owner of FinGood. “They invoiced monthly. As I recall, it was tens or hundreds of thousands per month,” Endler said. Another former managing director and co-owner, Tomáš Pešek, also confirmed the cooperation. “I met with Robert Kaliňák in person. They provided us with analyses of the Slovak market and the legal environment in Slovakia,” said Tomáš Pešek.
Although FinGood paid for analyses of the local market, it does not actually operate in Slovakia; it has neither an office nor a license from the Slovak National Bank there.
“We had some big projects there and were planning to enter the Slovak market,” claims Vít Endler, finally admitting: “It’s true that sometime in 2024, the Slovakia project ended.”
Kaliňák: The amounts don’t add up
Slovak Minister Kaliňák does not deny that his office received money from Prague. He just says that the amounts don’t add up.
“I am a co-owner of a law firm that has clients who took advantage of the opportunity while I was out of politics,” he responded to questions from Seznam Zprávy.
It is not entirely clear what exactly the analyses for which Kallan Legal is being paid should have contained.
“We did various analyses, some of them on the Slovak market. I can even tell you that I remember one that was Ukrainian. But I can’t tell you any more, as I am bound by attorney-client privilege,” said Kaliňák.
Money continues to flow into the Slovak minister’s company from FinGood, even after Kaliňák’s return to top-level politics. For what? FinGood does not want to explain. “We pay monthly, and that’s our business. I won’t say anything more about it,” said Ondřej Kozel, the current director of the FinGood platform, refusing to answer more detailed questions.
Kaliňák himself admits that he knows Strnad well. However, he claims he had no idea that Strnad was also behind FinGood. “I have no such information. At least, I have never come across that name there,” he noted. “But these are not the sums you are talking about.”
Who is Robert Kaliňák
He is one of the founding members of the SMER party and a close long-time associate of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. He served as Minister of the Interior in Fico’s first three governments.
He resigned after the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak, mainly due to public pressure. In April 2022, he was arrested by the Slovak police and charged with founding a criminal group and compromising tax secrecy in the Súmrak case. However, the Attorney General subsequently dropped the charges.
In October 2023, he became Minister of Defense in Robert Fico’s fourth government.
The trail leads to CSG
However, according to the commercial register, FinGood’s parent company, Alcor Investments, shares the same address as CSG’s headquarters. One of FinGood’s managers also confirmed to Seznam Zprávy that Michal Strnad was involved in the actual management of the company.
“We provided CSG with financial documentation on a regular basis. The annual budget was even approved by Michal Strnad himself,” said the source.
His words were indirectly confirmed by former executive Vít Endler. “Of course, I had an idea from the beginning who was paying for it. I spoke directly with Michal Strnad once,” said Endler.
When FinGood obtained a license from the Czech National Bank in 2023, it had to disclose where it got its initial capital. Strnad helped the startup. “Of the approximately 70 million, about half came from Michal Strnad,” a source familiar with the proceedings at the national bank told Seznam Zprávy. The editorial staff knows his identity but will not reveal it because the source fears revenge.
In addition, managers from Strnad’s CSG were directly involved in the management of FinGood. Seznam Zprávy has their internal email correspondence. For example, a FinGood manager consults on one of the loans he is deciding on. He asks a CSG employee for approval. And the employee responds directly from a CSG email address. When he is presented with detailed information about the project, he gives the loan the green light: “On behalf of the investment committee, I approve the proposal.”
Strnad: Historical investments…
Arms manufacturer Strnad did not want to discuss his involvement in FinGood personally. Through his spokesperson Andrej Čírtka, he only sent a written statement: “On behalf of Mr. Michal Strnad, I would like to state that Mr. Strnad is not an owner, shareholder, or member of the governing bodies of FinGood, and therefore cannot and will not comment on its financial management, contractual relationships, or individual payments.”
And how much money did he invest in FinGood? “Historical investments or loan financing of start-up projects do not constitute decision-making control over their business relationships or the selection of their partners,” Strnad responded indirectly in his statement.
The rapid rise of his holding company coincides not only with the start of the war in Ukraine and Slovak business deals. At the same time, Kaliňák’s law firm, Kallan Legal, also began to do exceptionally well. This was just when it signed a contract with the Czech company FinGood.
“I went through Kallan Legal’s financial statements. In 2019, 2020, and 2021, they were not doing very well financially. Their profits were somewhere between €40,000 and €190,000. In 2022, however, this suddenly changed, and their profits increased significantly to three-quarters of a million. In 2024, it even reached €1.1 million,” pointed out Xenia Makarová, an analyst at the Stop Corruption Foundation, who examined Kallan Legal’s business for Seznam Zprávy.
The Slovak Minister of Defense denies that he would find himself in a conflict of interest if he cooperated with the Fingood platform, or with Michal Strnad. “I don’t even consider it a problem,” he said in an interview, which can be seen in the introductory video report.
Strnad’s financial operations
The crowdfunding platform FinGood is another business activity in which billionaire and arms dealer Michal Strnad is involved and through which he exercises his influence.
In recent months, Seznam Zprávy has reported that Strnad had another established procedure for concealing financial operations that were not supposed to be visible.
For example, through Car Service Group CZ, operating under the Cash4Car brand, former Czech Railways director Václav Nebeský acquired a luxury Mercedes at a favorable price, with Strnad organizing the deal behind the scenes. He also secretly sponsored the campaign of former President Miloš Zeman through this car pawn shop. He also lent money to companies. Strnad received millions in cash in return.
