The punishment for doing business without the relevant permit from the National Bank of Slovakia includes imprisonment for twelve to twenty years.

The National Bank of Slovakia also imposes a penalty of twelve to twenty years’ imprisonment for conducting business without the relevant permit. This is due to the structure of the Slovak version of the criminal offence of laundering the proceeds of crime (Section 233 of the Criminal Code). Thus, for example, in a structure where a trading company charges a “management fee” for investment management or investment advice and pays out these funds (for example, distilled through dividends), the beneficiaries of these funds (for example, the shareholders of the trading company) are exposed to this risk. At first glance, this risk seems theoretical, but the situation with regard to the Andrej Kiska tax case has also shown that in Slovakia the phrase “Slovakia is a state governed by the rule of law” is increasingly diverging from its normative sister: “The Slovak Republic is … and the rule of law” (Article 1 of the Constitution) and the related requirement for a substantive rule of law. Whoever would be interested in the topic of financial regulation in more detail, we will address it at our conference on investment structures with an emphasis on real estate, which will be held on 21.11.2023 at the Grand Hotel River Park, a Luxury Collection Hotel. Key note speech will be given by Tomáš Ambra from Národná banka Slovenska and besides him there will be a number of speakers/experts from relevant players in the Slovak capital market (more info here: https://lnkd.in/e6uEbNmb). And it will be no different in the auditorium and at the evening networking session in the hotel. ➡️Attention, there are about 10 tickets left. We are trying to address the topic of financial regulation with a link to taxes and a kind of cultivation of our investment infrastructure conscientiously (hence the conference). And that’s also why Roman Baranec and I, in collaboration with Lenka Buchláková, have made another new video podcast. This time on the following topics: ➡️ Does investing in financial instruments need to be regulated?(https://lnkd.in/dj5n2kku)
➡️ Real estate investment funds(https://lnkd.in/dQuaYy8j) Anyway, we’re moving on. I think it is a common goal for all of us to make the legal environment more predictable. I mean, if it isn’t, at the end of the day it’s uncomfortable for just about everyone (including our grandparents’ wallets). P.S. Anyone interested in the KTAG tax case mentioned above in more detail, I wrote a blog on it in 2019(https://lnkd.in/d2b98rNu).