A phenomenon and a consequence of the rapid liberalisation of the economy in the Czech Republic was also the emergence of a group of wealthy people who came into wealth without the classic long-term business building and without experience. Many of the fast-flying millionaires were naive and were easily manipulated or explicitly “stretched”. And many of them liked to flaunt their wealth publicly, talk about it or present luxury. It was precisely these people, as the investigation into the case of the so-called Švába gang showed, who were targeted by organised crime.
Michael Šváb, the brother-in-law of actor Martin Dejdar, is a recidivist and former film producer. The gang was founded by Michael Šváb and Libor Skopalík in early 2011.
Wealthy businessmen were lured abroad under various pretexts by Šváb under the pseudonym Robert Kelner, where they were subsequently imprisoned and forced to pay large sums of money through blackmail. The cockroach demonstrated a brilliant capacity for manipulation. He often made friends with the blackmailed in exclusive clubs. He often went on holidays with them and knew their families or neighbourhoods. He especially chose eccentric people who liked to draw attention to their wealth. The prosecution was able to prove that in two cases, the kidnappings of these businessmen had led to murder.
In July 2011, a wealthy internet entrepreneur was lured to Valencia, Spain, under the guise of charity. He was handcuffed in a rented apartment and forced to pay the sum of 2 million US dollars by electronic transfer, under death threats to him and his relatives. After paying the sum, he was allowed to fly back to Prague. Three other gang members were accomplices.
In November 2011, Michael Šváb tried to lure Martin Staszko, a recent millionaire poker player, to Cannes, France, under the pretext of a fictitious private poker game. For this purpose, he contacted the chairman of the Czech Poker Association, Milan Sláma, with whom he again negotiated as Robert Kelner. Sláma, however, began to suspect Šváb alias Kelner of wanting to swindle Staszko out of money in a dirty game and broke off the negotiations. Staszko himself only learned of the danger in April 2013 after a police press conference where details of the gang members’ arrest and their photographs were published.
In November 2012, another businessman was lured to Dubai under the pretext of negotiating a contract to carry out construction work on a development project in Bratislava. The negotiations were to take place in an apartment Šváb had long rented in his real name. Upon arrival, the businessman was handcuffed and subsequently blackmailed by his accomplices, Libor Skopalík, Petr Klement and Jiří Přeučil. Through blackmail, the businessman was forced to hand over a payment card with a PIN code and passwords for internet banking. He was then forced to drink a bottle of hard liquor and taken to the desert, where he was beaten by Klement and buried with the help of other accomplices. The gang withdrew nearly 2 million crowns from the accounts. The body of the murdered man has not been found.
In March 2013, Šváb alias Kelner lured Prague businessman Petr Vlach to Nice, France, under the pretext of buying two luxury Prague villas advertised by Vlach, where he was subsequently imprisoned and blackmailed in the rented villa. However, Vlach’s personal banker in Germany, who was contacted by Vlach to sell Vlach’s assets worth almost CZK 10 million and transfer the proceeds to a designated account in Austria, apparently became suspicious, did not transfer the proceeds and contacted Vlach’s family. Fearing their whereabouts would be revealed, the gang and Vlach moved to Italy, where Vlach was shot dead near the Italian-Austrian border. The gang subsequently withdrew nearly 200,000 crowns from two of Vlach’s accounts. The accomplices were Libor Skopalík, Petr Klement and Daniel Dimitrov.
At the same time, Šváb lured another businessman to Nice under the pretext of buying a luxury yacht. The businessman arrived in Nice, but the meeting never took place because the gang left Nice for fear of revealing the location of Petr Vlach’s imprisonment.
In June 2012, the gang allegedly robbed another victim at her home in Olomouc of a Renoir painting and 10 Picasso drawings. The owner estimated the total damage at CZK 415 million.
Police arrested five members of the gang at the end of March 2013 and the remaining two a few months later. The group is suspected of multiple crimes. However, evidence is often missing and victims refuse to give their testimonies due to shame. Still, some sub-cases are being pursued.
In 2014, the Municipal Court in Prague found seven members of Švába’s gang guilty of kidnapping businessmen abroad and two murders. Michael Šváb, after whom the group was named, received a life sentence. His right-hand man, Libor Skopalík, also received an exceptional sentence. The executor of the two proven murders, Petr Klement, received 30 years. Another member, Daniel Dimitrov, heard a verdict of 20 years in prison mainly because he cooperated with police. The other three convicted received nine or ten years. Appeals by gang members failed and the verdicts were upheld by the Constitutional Court in 2016.
The convicts were also ordered to pay CZK 240 000 in compensation to the five survivors. They were ordered to pay US$1.9 million to the businessman who paid the ransom in the 2011 kidnapping to Spain.
