At the request of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO), the Podgorica High Court blocked a villa in the Bogišići neighborhood of Tivat and a ground-floor building with a basement in the same city, which are owned by Czech citizen, medical doctor Pavel Budinsky (66).
Budinski is the former deputy director of Prague's Motol University Hospital, the country's largest medical institution, and is suspected of being part of a group accused of corruption, subsidy fraud, harming the EU's financial interests and money laundering.
His shares in the company ACROS MB, which is registered in Tivat, have also been blocked.
"...Whose founder, authorized representative and executive director is Pavel Budinski, because there is a reasonable suspicion that the said property was acquired through criminal activity," the court's decision explained.
In a Tivat settlement, this Czech citizen owns property with a total area of 648 square meters.
The main building is a one-story family residential building with a basement, built in 2002, with an area of 210 square meters. Within the same building, Budinski owns a two-room basement apartment with an area of 109 square meters, a garage on the ground floor (36 square meters), and two two-room apartments - one on the ground floor (110 square meters) and the other in the attic (65 square meters).
Public procurement under scrutiny
On the same plot there is also an auxiliary building from 2003, measuring 54 square meters, which also contains two one-bedroom living spaces, one in the basement (34 square meters) and the other on the ground floor (30 square meters).
All property in 2022 was registered as 1/1 ownership of Budinski.
The operation in which Budinski was arrested was carried out in February, and EU prosecutors pointed out at the time that significant damage was caused to the financial interests of the European Union, which could exceed 160 million euros.
It was also announced at the time that senior hospital officials, such as director Miloslav Ludvik, the former Czech Minister of Health, were accused of systematically abusing public procurement procedures to secure illegal financial benefits from contracts awarded by the hospital.
According to the investigation, Ludvik and his deputy Pavel Budinski received several percent of every contract the hospital concluded with someone, so the value of the bribe is allegedly measured in hundreds of thousands of euros.
The decision to block Budinski's assets in Montenegro was made by the investigating judge of the Higher Court in Podgorica, Goran Šćepanović, Vijesti learned.
According to court documents, he was deciding in the procedure of international legal assistance in criminal matters, upon a request from the European Public Prosecutor's Office in the Czech Republic, regarding criminal proceedings conducted before the police body of the National Headquarters for the Fight against Organized Crime of the local police.
It was explained that Budinski and others are charged with committing the criminal offenses of subsidy fraud, causing damage to the financial interests of the EU, accepting bribes, directly giving bribes, and criminal legalization of proceeds from criminal activity.
At the beginning of March, the EPPO, through a request for international legal assistance, asked Montenegro to temporarily block Budinski's assets in our country.
"The Special State Prosecutor's Office, with its proposal Ktr-S.br. 192/25 and Kmp-S.br. 75/25 of 8. 4. 2025, which was received by the court on 8. 4. 2025 at 10.05 a.m., proposed the issuance of a provisional measure from the enacting terms of this decision, justifying its proposal by the fact that the European Public Prosecutor's Office in the Czech Republic has submitted a request for international legal assistance in criminal matters number 1.000821/2024 of 4. 3. 2025, which was simultaneously submitted to the Special State Prosecutor's Office on 25. 03. 2025 by the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro and the State Prosecutor of the Higher State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, Ana Radović, in her capacity as the contact person of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, based on the Working Agreement on Cooperation," reads the explanation of the decision signed by judge Goran Šćepanović.
Manipulated contracts
Pavel Budinski is the former deputy director of the Motol University Hospital in Prague, the largest hospital in the Czech Republic. In February 2025, he was arrested as part of a major anti-corruption investigation led by the EPPO, in cooperation with the Czech police. The investigation involved 22 people, including Budinski, on suspicion of corruption, misuse of subsidies, money laundering and harming the financial interests of the European Union.
According to the EPPO, Budinsky and the other suspects systematically abused public procurement procedures, seeking and providing illegal financial benefits in the execution of contracts for projects financed or co-financed by EU funds, including the Czech Republic's National Recovery Plan and the European Cohesion Fund. The total value of the disputed projects exceeds 160 million euros (approximately 4 billion Czech crowns).
One of the key projects under investigation is the reconstruction of the so-called Blue Pavilion and the construction of a 120 million euro oncology center, which was part of the Czech Republic's National Economic Recovery Plan. The suspects allegedly manipulated contracts and took commissions of several percent per contract, accumulating bribes in the hundreds of thousands of euros.
To gather additional evidence, more than 350 police officers conducted 46 searches across the Czech Republic in late February, including a hospital, business premises and a law firm.
16 suspects were charged with corruption, subsidy fraud, harming the EU's financial interests and money laundering (each suspect was charged according to their own involvement). The investigation and searches were carried out with the support of the National Central Unit for Combating Organized Crime of the Czech Police and its Rapid Intervention Squad.
The EPPO is the independent public prosecutor's office of the European Union, and this Office is responsible for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to justice perpetrators of crimes against the EU's financial interests.
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