The company, founded by businessman Jan Jezbera with a controversial past, presents itself as the most significant project of which is “a worldwide patented invention of a new type of catheter that will find application in many medical fields.”
Television in bankruptcy
The shares of the company, which is controlled by Riocath Global, are sold to Šlágr Klub members, for example, with the words: “Invest in shares with certainty” or “contractually guaranteed return” or “invest with certainty”.
It is worth mentioning that the spectators of the Šlágr station are mainly seniors. There is a comparison with the infamous pot sales, which usually targeted the same age group. Šlágr TV itself, of which Riocath FNDB is a shareholder, is currently in bankruptcy.
Lawyer Jan Langmeier does not take napkins in connection with this share offer. “Formulations such as ‘contractually guaranteed return’ are, to say the least, unreliable,” he said. “There are many investment opportunities in the market that I would not dare to criticize, let alone in public. Then, of course, there are still a lot of offers that can’t even be said to be high risk, but that they are designed from the beginning as a scam for investors who believe in their marketing. And the offer of shares from Riocath FNDB on Šlágr TV is unfortunately one of them, “said the lawyer.
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Execution history
Langmeier noted that the shares are not publicly traded and it is therefore not clear how their market price was determined on the Šlágr TV website. It is also remarkable that the accumulated unpaid loss of the company from previous years amounted to almost three billion crowns at the end of 2020.
“At the same time, the financial statements show that the company’s only asset – apart from long-term receivables – is the 2004 software license, which is reportedly worth 526 million crowns,” Langmeier pointed out. Riocath FNDB was established in April 1994 and had a registered capital of 3.5 billion crowns from the very beginning. He is still registered.
The company, which has been in liquidation and execution in the past, promises investors that they will buy back their shares at a higher price at any time if they are interested. The so-called guaranteed return related to the purchase price of shares is five percent per year. “For 42 months, you are sure as if you were investing in a bond,” says the Šlágr TV website.
At the same time, there can be no question of any certainty. The least risky bonds usually include securities issued by states or prosperous multinational companies. Riocath FNDB does not belong to any of these groups. The company does not even have a rating from any of the reputable agencies. It is therefore not clear what the “security” is.
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Jezbera to Interconex
The chairman of the board of Riocath FNDB is businessman Jan Jezbera, whom he has talked about in the past interested in the Czech security forces due to contacts in the underworld. Jezbera heads the statutory body of FWDS Europe, which owns 40 percent of Šlágr TV shares.
In the past, Riocath FNDB was called Interconex Invest. In the 1990s, the Interconex financial group controlled, for example, tunneled investment funds in Litoměřice. As stated in 2010, for example Economic newspaper, Jezbera was one of the key figures of the Interconex group. Former Minister of the Interior Jan Ruml even in the same year on the program Reporters of the Czech Television he spoke in connection with one of Jezber’s companies on organized crime.
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Without regulator supervision
Unfortunately, the regulator, the Czech National Bank, is said to be unable to deal with the offer of Riocath FNDB shares. In the CNB’s view, due to the smaller volume of shares offered (up to one million euros or the equivalent in crowns), this is a public offer for which there is no obligation to publish a prospectus. “The CNB is therefore not in a position to deal with any possible inaccuracy or misleading of promotional messages disseminated in connection with this offer,” central bank spokeswoman Petra Vodstrčilová told the E15 daily.
Riocath FNDB and Šlágr TV did not respond to the inquiries regarding the current share offer until the deadline of this text.
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