People get into politics for different reasons. Some want to help others, some do it for power and fame. Erik Mikurčík's reason was his loss of faith in the justice system and a subsequent decision to change things. He is currently dealing with a trial for the ownership of the Carlton hotel and it's not the only lawsuit on his agenda. In our interview, he gave us his personal opinion on this case and the state of politics and the justice system. How the trial turns out is still up in the air.
Why would a real estate businessman be interested in getting into politics?
We need to fix the state. I've spent my entire career trying to build something. I focused on showing Slovakia in a positive light at home as well as abroad. My life's success was the return of the Carlton hotel complex in Bratislava back into Slovak hands. And that's when I came up against a solid wall of injustice, interests of the oligarchy, and corruption. And you cannot live a normal life nor do business in a lawless environment. The time has come for real change!
What is the Hotel Carlton case all about? It's been going on for seven years now...
In short. I worked on a project to acquire and revitalize the Carlton complex in Bratislava. I invited a couple of individuals from Eset to be my partners. The reason? Eset was a renowned company with an excellent reputation in 2015. Two partners in the company, however, acted in violation of the reputation they had and attempted to push me out of the project shortly after it was initiated. Something like that would never have been possible if they hadn't paid off the state.
What do you mean?
When I was on vacation in the summer of 2017, they went behind my back and transferred my stake in the company under their names without any of the necessary documentation while also removing my name from the Trade Register with the help of the vice president of District Court Bratislava I, which has jurisdiction over the Register. The transfers happened through human intervention as well as a mysterious breakdown of the Trade Register IT system.
But where does the state come in?
The state facilitated the illegal transfers by proxy of the court officials. The state covered up these felonies by proxy of the minister and the vice president of the court. And finally, the state, represented by the courts, police, and prosecutor's offices, has neglected to enact legal consequences while also failing to provide redress.
This case is still being tried. What is your side of it built on?
It's undeniable that the gentlemen from Eset essentially stole my stake in the company. It is undeniable that "miraculous" illegal transfers took place in the Trade Register that were clearly the work of an organized group. Furthermore, they don't shy away from joining forces with known dubious entities, such as Marián Kočner. Is it at all acceptable for a director of an IT company that supplies its anti-spam services to government institutions to be actively cooperating with a person who is the only one in all of Czecho-Slovakia to be on the Magnitsky Act list? They are also verifiably cooperating with Zoroslav Kollár who has been known in Slovakia for many years as the Procurement Don and who has immense influence on the decisions made by Slovak courts. After the murder of a journalist, Marián Kočner's cellphone was secured, and messages from the Threema app were extracted from it. Nearly 600 of those messages were related to tampering with court and police decisions to my detriment in the Carlton case. They launched a legal harassment campaign against me in an attempt to silence my voice, and I'm now facing two indictments.
The case also involved former special prosecutor Dušan Kováčik who was sentenced last year to eight years in prison for the disclosure of confidential information and accepting a bribe...
Yes, this gentleman, nicknamed "Mr. 61:0" hasn't filed charges a single time in his 16-year career according to mainstream media. In reality, he is "Mr. 61:1" as he did file charges once. And the one instance – in the Carlton case against me, no less – happened in May 2020, shortly before he was detained. The craziest part is that he wasn't even the lead prosecutor. He picked up the case without any justification, only to read the 1,400-page file in the span of three hours and draft a 26-page document outlining the charges, which he signed himself! Let me also mention that around the time the charges were filed, he mysteriously deposited 204,000 EUR in cash into his Slovak Savings Bank account. My question is – how can charges filed by a prosecutor who is later found guilty of corruption even be considered valid?
This is starting to sound like a movie plot...
We're just getting started and I'm trying to keep things short, too. Just recently, the special prosecutor's office filed charges against regional prosecutor Bystrík Palovič. He came into my office and asked for 100,000 EUR in hush money to drop the second set of charges against me that he himself filed. As much as I considered his visit a danger to myself, I decided to record our conversation. He told me things such as that he didn't even want to file charges against me but that he was facing "immense pressure from above". I handed the recording over to the NCA (National Crime Agency of the Presidium of the Police Force). Thankfully, unlike other cases brought against me, this one was handled by a decent, professional investigator from Banská Bystrica. The investigation was ultimately closed after massive delays. While the charges brought against me took a total of three hours to produce, a prosecutor who abused his power was allowed five months, and that is four years after the crime happened!
And is that the reason why you want to get into politics?
Yes. The unenforceability and misuse of law in Slovakia have grown to immense proportions. I joined the Republic movement and the Law and Justice expert team as the only non-lawyer. I chose the symbolic number 32 on the election ticket because Article 32 of the Slovak Constitution states that a citizen has the right to resist if government institutions fail.
Do you still have time to run your business with all of that going on?
It's difficult, but I do. I've always been interested in real estate but also culture and sports. I've supported many events like the Days of Slovak Literature and Ekotopfilm, I regularly support various sports activities such as the Hanuman Cup and the tennis Pulitzer Cup for journalists. I worked on the 50th season of the Bratislava Lyre festival together with Ľubo Belák and Dodo Šuhajda as well as the organizer Dušan Drobný. I hosted Karel Gott in the Carlton. I invited him for lunch to try our specialty, the duck breast. And do you know what he said? "This meat is tender like cake!" I presented a bouquet onstage to Jana Kocianová for her jubilee; the Lyre was one of her last shows. She whispered in my ear, "Erik, you must keep this tradition going." My company, Arthur, celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. Besides a wide portfolio of real estate and consulting services, our crown jewel is the best ice cream in Bratislava, ARTHUR ice. My activities in Slovakia are being hindered for obvious reasons, but I've become more active abroad once again. Together with my partners from The Netherlands, England, and Malta, we obtained the World Trade Center – Monaco and Luxembourg license. We are currently preparing the projects.
The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the position of the editorial staff
CV BOX
Erik Mikurčík (born August 23, 1975) is the owner and executive director of Carlton Property and managing partner of the ARTHUR Real Estate Company group.
He graduated from the Comenius University Bratislava Faculty of Management, later earning an MBA from the ESCP-EAP University in Berlin.
Mikurčík worked as a key account manager for VIP clients in Orange Slovakia, managing director of the marketing agency Proximity Slovakia under the Mark BBDO group, managing director of the Global Hotel Brokers network in Vienna, and executive director for Central and Eastern Europe in the London-based Dorchester Group of Companies.
He is married and has two daughters (Nikoleta, 12, and Lucia, 23). Besides his wife Zuzana, he also loves tennis, which he played professionally in the past.
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