Pačes should pay the price

Four years after we wrote that Václav Pačes should be sacked as supervisory board chairman of ČEZ, it finally happened. Pačes said that he was removed on Fri. because he wasn't seen as being Andrej Babiš's man, which merely served to emphasize that he was the man of Bohuslav Sobotka. The chairman of the supervisory board of a state-controlled company has tremendous fiduciary responsibility as the taxpayers' ultimate defense against corporate abuse by insiders. Pačes's crime was to help cover up ČEZ's questionable deals. He was one of many, but in his case, the crime before God and the people was all the worse, because he lent his good name as a respected scientist to this deception. He deserves to go down with the hardened criminals. Perhaps the courts could show him mercy, though, just as they did with Tomáš Březina. He was sentenced to just 3.5 years in prison, because he helped the police uncover the criminal activity of his brother's liquor mafia.