Czech Police seek Ghana's assistance ....

... in fraud and money laundering case
Prague- The police, in search of evidence on the suspected criminal activities of former Social Democrat (CSSD) deputies' group head Michal Kraus, seek assistance of Ghana on this point, the daily Mlada fronta Dnes writes.

Kraus is suspected of fraud and money laundering in connection with his negotiations in Ghana about almost $US21 million worth of investment in a local cocoa processing plant.

On his trip to Ghana in 2001, he was accompanied by Czech businessman Frantisek Rigo, who is now serving a prison sentence, and Austrian businessman Alfred Augustin.

"The police have asked us to prepare [a request for] legal assistance of Ghana. It is being worked on," state attorney Sarka Pokorna told the paper.

The police have already declassified some banking accounts to which Kraus used to have access. One of them, kept on the name of Kraus's mother in Pardubice, east Bohemia, was used to transfer $US75,000 as an advance payment for the Ghanian project. The police are investigating it as suspected money laundering.

No one has been accused within the case so far.

Kraus, who was the country's longest-serving lower house deputy, resigned as CSSD deputies' group and lower house budget committee chairman when the cocoa affair surfaced late last year, and gave up his mandate of a deputy.