A story about biodegradable knives by a Czech start-up Reformation had a major crackdown after the value of EFK digital tokens intended to fund Refork fell almost to zero. About 2,500 token investors were left with almost nothing. Alone Reformation despite the growth in sales, the company is losing money and the business is going out of business. According to Refork, because of unfair competition.
The unclear ownership structure of Refork also raises questions. Editorial office SZ Byznys he discovered that Daniel Rudzan is the main person behind Refork. This information was confirmed on condition of anonymity by several sources, either familiar with Refork’s operations, or with Rudzan’s business. Rudzan’s involvement in Refork was also confirmed by the BICZ group, which is an investor in Refork. download.
At the same time, Rudzan does not appear officially in the groups of any of the companies around Refork. The reason is simple. Daniel Rudzan is among the defendants in the multi-billion dollar tax evasion case involving businessman Shahram Zadeh. But unlike Zadeh, Rudzan denies his guilt. Rudzan received the harshest sentence in this case, which is 11 years in prison and a fine of ten million crowns. According to the indictment, he managed the entire fraudulent system.
However, the Supreme Court dismissed this judgment and sent it back to the Regional Court in Brno for a new hearing. The main test started just these days.
Tax evasion case surrounding Shahram Zadeh
Shahram Zadeh is an Iranian businessman. He has held Czech citizenship since 2009. In 2014, police began investigating Zadeh and at least 13 others on suspicion of tax evasion in international fuel deals. The damage should have been 2.5 billion crowns. According to the indictment, the chain of 85 companies was managed by Daniel Rudzan.
In a complicated process, Zadeh finally pleaded guilty and entered into a plea agreement in 2021. He received a summary sentence of nine years in prison and a fine of 17.5 million crowns. The agreement on guilt and punishment was also decided by other actors in the case.
On the other hand, the five defendants, led by Daniel Rudzan, continue to maintain that they are innocent. The regional court in Brno handed down judgments in their case in 2021. Rudzan received 11 years in prison and a fine of ten million crowns.
However, the Supreme Court in Olomouc canceled the judgment with the remaining five, including Rudzan, at the beginning of 2024 due to serious defects and they returned to the Regional Court in Brno for a new hearing. At the same time, he ordered that another panel try the case.
The new main trial at the Brno Regional Court with Daniel Rudzan, Eliška Opatrná (formerly Coufalová), Petr Dokládal, Petr Moštěk and Radovan Chaloupka began on 21 October 2024. The president of the panel is Judge Jaroslava Bartošová.
Rudzan has been behind Refork from the very beginning, i.e. around since 2019. Refork’s sister company registered in Estonia started selling tokens to investors shortly after. Investors invested around 160 million crowns in these tokens. Tokens were supposed to provide them with income in the future, but unlike shares, they do not allow, for example, voting at the general meeting. The token associated with Refork is currently traded on one exchange, BitMart.
The value of the EFK token has fallen by 97 percent since last summer, according to data from the platform CoinMarketCap, which monitors the development of the value cryptocurrency. The crash happened in the summer of 2023, and since then the value has hardly changed. Refork promises to use the profit, which is expected to reach from 2025, to strengthen the value of the tokens.
Investors with whom the editors had the opportunity to speak did not know about Rudzan’s involvement in Refork.
“If I had known that someone like Daniel Rudzan was behind Refork, I would never have invested in it,” said one of the brands.
The same is claimed by the real estate group BICZ, which has invested a lot in Refork. However, in her case, she does not keep signs, but shares. Now he is trying to leave from the beginning. BICZ co-owner Milan Filo is even on Refork’s board. He now says they did not come across Rudzan during the legal or accounting audit before the investment was made.
“We only met Daniel Rudzan as part of the management of our investment in business. Mr. Daniel Rudzan was involved and worked for us as one of the senior managers on the project. We didn’t know about his background and his influence on Refork, and we really don’t know yet,” said BICZ co-owner Milan Filo when asked by SZ Byznys.
“Nonetheless, the fact that his record (we mean the charges despite not being convicted even after 11 years) is one of the reasons why we decided to accelerate our exit strategy. Our organization believes that we do things well and according to the rules, and we do not want to be associated with things that are not completely transparent, such as cryptocurrencies or people with difficult or controversial PR, “said the head of BICZ.
BICZ Group has announced that they have already started to exit from Refork. However, it is not clear who will get his shares. BICZ did not disclose the name of the recipient. According to information from BICZ and Refork, the aforementioned group has 56 percent of the startup group. Despite this, he has only one representative in the company’s organizations, that is Milan Filo.
On the other hand, Refork’s management is full of people connected to the company’s second shareholder, PE&VC Partners Group. The CEO of Refork, Josef Žádník, is also a member of the board of directors of PE&VC Partners Group.
Photo: List of News
A diagram of connections around the Refork company.
Lawyer Ondřej Plánička is an important person on the board of directors of the PE&VC Partners Group. He is also on Refork’s own board of directors.
“Unfortunately, I am now abroad for a long time, and my workload does not allow me to answer questions in detail,” Plánička answered questions from SZ Byznys regarding his cooperation by Rudzan and Refork.
According to the commercial record and data on the company’s website, Plánička and the head of Refork Žádník also appear in structures around the Litvín G7 group. She deals in fuel. That is, with products that Rudzan also traded with.
“Mr. Rudzan has no influence on the management of the G7 company. Mr. Plánička is the legal representative of the company. I am not aware that it represents the interests of any particular person,” G7 owner Milan Kanaloš told SZ Byznys.
“G7 does not and does not have any relationship with Refork, we have never invested in this company. The only thing we have done with the company Refork is to try to find cooperation in selling their products at gas stations, unfortunately it is not working out very well in terms of price and customers use existing plastic products,” said Kanaloš.
But the truth is that Refork and its EFK token are listed as G7 investments in “sustainable projects for the preservation of the planet”.
According to information in the commercial register and in the register of beneficial owners, Tomáš Sedlák is the last owner of Refork and PE&VC Partners Group. He works, among other things, as a real estate broker. In the current offer available on the website, it mediates the sale or lease of four older buildings in Brno.
Photo: List of News
Links Tomáš Sedlák and Daniel Rudzan.
Sedlák is another person around Refork, whom Rudzan knows well. It was Sedlák who in 2015 posted bail of 9.5 million crowns to get Rudzan out of pre-trial detention.
“I was hired by my friend Tomáš Sedlák, who is one of the investors. I work as a real estate consultant with an income of ten thousand crowns,” said Judge Jaroslava Bartošová from one of Rudzan’s statements when she started a new round of major trials with Rudzan and others for evasion charges at the Regional Court in Brno on October 21.
Sedlák declined to comment on questions about Refork and cooperation with Rudzan. The editors of SZ Byznys also contacted Daniel Rudzan with a request to report on Reform. He did not even pick up the phone on several calls, and did not respond to questions sent through the WhatsApp application. Rudzan was not present at the renewed proceedings in the “Zadeh” case at the Regional Court in Brno. He was represented by his lawyer Daniel Telecký. He promised to forward the questions about Refork to Rudzan, but even then no answers came.
Even company director Josef Žádník did not answer questions about Rudzan’s involvement in Refork.
What is a signal?
Tokens are equivalent to digital bonds. Token issuers promise to share with people in the future, for example, income and profits from businesses they fund with tokens. Holders of tokens, unlike shareholders, do not have the right to vote at the general meeting.
In the Czech Republic, brands were promoted mostly by the company Xixoio. She wanted to create a digital platform where companies would go for capital obtained by selling tokens. However, the case ended with an investigation by the party NCOZ a accusation Xixoia agents from fraud. However, they deny any wrongdoing and claim that the police simply did not understand the company’s business model.
2024-10-23 03:30:00
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