Swiss pull a fast one on Czechs

02.09.2014 - EB

Before the previous Swiss ambassador, André Regli, left Prague in the summer of 2013, he spent time meeting with anyone in Czech government and public life who would listen to him about the MUS case (including the publisher of the Final Word). His main question was why the CR had shown so little interest in recouping the Kč 12bn frozen in Swiss bank accounts. He acted convincingly naive in asking the question, and he was able to generate a media storm about the possible motives of the Czech officials involved. So when the Swiss court in Bellinzona decided last year to keep the money, instead of returning it to the Czech taxpayers who had been ripped of, hardly anyone questioned the decision. In retrospect, it was a great ploy by the Swiss, and it helps to explain why the current Swiss ambassador, Markus Antonietti, refuses to talk about MUS. The Czechs have been outsmarted at their own kind of game.

Glossary of difficult words

to pull a fast one on someone - to succeed in an act of deception;

to recoup - to regain (something lost);

to rip off someone - to perpetrate a fraud or swindle;

ploy - a cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage;

to outsmart someone - to defeat or get the better of someone by being clever or cunning.



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