Czech investment company financed Russian propaganda in the country

Investors entrusted Invest & Property Consulting (IPC) with hundreds of millions of crowns, and it used them to finance Russian propaganda, journalists of the Czech newspaper Seznam Zprávy have discovered. The company's accounts have now been seized by the police.

Seznam Zprávy journalists investigated the activities of Invest & Property Consulting and found out that the company sent tens of millions of crowns from its depositors to Vladimir Putin's allies in the country.

One of the beneficiaries was the daughter of the former deputy head of the Czech president's office, Erica Hajkova. She subsidised the book publishing house Česká citadela, which published texts by pro-Russian disinformation disseminators, according to journalists. Erica Hajkova is also the owner of her father's online publication. The journalists found Russian propaganda on this portal.

IPC also created a scheme for investing money through trust funds to circumvent the regulations of the Czech National Bank. In this way, financial advisers, not the investment company itself, became responsible for the management of investors' money.

The Czech National Office for Combating Organised Crime froze the property of Invest & Property Consulting on suspicion of fraud. Managers cannot dispose of accounts with invested funds, and the investors themselves are going to sue the company.