Tipos Confirms Charges against GM Marek Kanka

Bratislava, June 9 (TASR) – State-run lottery company Tipos on Thursday confirmed that its general manager Marek Kanka has been charged by the National Crime Agency (NAKA) under its Operation Cart, along with 24 other individuals and six legal entities.

According to the company, Kanka received the charges on Thursday and was interrogated by the police on the same day. He filed a complaint against the charges, claiming that he fails to understand them.

NAKA has been carrying out Operation Cart in several regions of the country since the early hours of Thursday.

According to the news outlet aktuality.sk, the operation is related to shady business with motor fuels, tax fraud and money-laundering.

I trust law enforcement bodies, Finance Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) said in response to the charges pressed against Marek Kanka, the general manager of state-run lottery company Tipos, which belongs under his ministry. “It still holds true what we promised the people before the election that we must all be equal before the law,” said Matovic, adding that they don’t protect anyone and don’t recognise the ‘our people’ policy [a term used to denote the system of cronyism in Slovakia that let some individuals stand above the law].

The Government Office also sent on Thursday its statement on the charges pressed against general manager of state-run lottery company Tipos Marek Kanka. Prime Minister Eduard Heger (OLaNO) doesn’t interfere in the work of law enforcement bodies and will wait for the result of the investigation and then present his opinion, said spokeswoman Lubica Janikova. “As Kanka isn’t subordinate to the prime minister, the premier can’t act against him,” stressed Janikova. Kanka took office in April 2020 at a time when Heger was the head of the Finance Ministry under which Tipos belongs.