NEWS FEATURE: To escape the mob, a businessman transfers his firm to the church

c. 1997 Religion News Service BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia _ Like many businessmen in the central European nation of Slovakia, Frantisek Mojzis faced some stark choices when local mobsters demanded huge protection payments. Mojzis, owner of a prosperous auto-leasing company, could make the payment, plead for help from a police force of questionable strength, or do […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia _ Like many businessmen in the central European nation of Slovakia, Frantisek Mojzis faced some stark choices when local mobsters demanded huge protection payments.

Mojzis, owner of a prosperous auto-leasing company, could make the payment, plead for help from a police force of questionable strength, or do what some of his colleagues have done: hire another mob charging a lower rate.


Instead, Mojzis found a unique sanctuary in an ususual place _ the Roman Catholic Church. He transferred his Drukos company, with its 600 employees and millions of dollars in annual sales, to a church-run charity in this central Slovak city.

He has also gone into semi-hiding, operating the company as a church employee but keeping his whereabouts secret.

“The threats were so serious that I had to hand over my company,” said Mojzis, whose name is Slovak for Francis Moses. He went to the church, he said, partly because of his religious beliefs but mainly because “the bishop’s office is a strong authority and I’m glad to have that strong authority behind me.”

The company will now be run by the Society for Helping the Poor and the Sick, run by the office of Banska Bystrica Bishop Jozef Hrtus.

Profits, which Hrtus estimated could reach $89,000 this year, will benefit the charity.

The bishop said he accepted the one-of-a-kind offer “to help to solve two problems. The first is the social problems” the charity aims to solve. “The second is the problem of racketeering.”

Mojzis is not laying all his worldly goods at the feet of the church, however. The charity paid him and his partners $30,000 for the Drukos firm, said Hrtus _ not a pittance, but far below the firm’s market value. Mojzis also remains as director and is paid, like other employees, a percentage of company profits.

Still, his action has hardly brought him peace on earth. Mojzis remains in hiding because he fears mobsters may want to avenge the way he escaped their clutches, said Hrtus. And Mojzis skipped a recent company board meeting for fear of an attack.


The bishop said he has received no threats to date, although he added that a source within “criminal ranks told me that the mafia would not spare anyone.”

Mojzis, however, believes the bishop as well as the company’s employees and property are now untouchable in a nation where at least 60 percent of the population is estimated to be Catholic.

“It’s good that Slovaks are so religious, because the mothers of the criminals would curse them if they attacked the bishops,” he said.

Many formerly Communist European nations are facing problems with organized crime. In this nation, formed in the 1993 breakup of Czechoslovakia, homegrown mobsters compete with crime organizations from the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia to extort money from even small-businessmen.

“Even the children of the businessmen are mentioned in these threats,” said Jozef Polakovic, president of the businessman’s section of the Slovak Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Slovak government is skeptical of the whole Drukos episode, however, describing the company transfer as “chaotic” and calling Mojzis’s action a calculated effort to embarrass the government.


“From the beginning, he refused to cooperate with the police and was giving information only to the media,” said Interior Ministry spokesman Jozef Krosak, who did not specify why Mojzis would do so. “He also rejected an Interior Ministry offer for protection.”

“I am cooperating with the police,” Mojzis said. “But I am not so naive as to give my life into the hands of someone who is under-employed, has poor equipment and has no special experience with organized crime.”

Hrtus and Mojzis both said there was no guarantee the charity would return the company to its former owners if the extortion crisis passed. “I don’t think about these things right now,” said Mojzis. “I want to save my life.”

Hrtus has clashed with the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar on another recent matter. Hrtus protested a government statement seeking a role in the appointment of Catholic bishops, comparing it to state controls on religion in the Communist era.

DEA END SMITH

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!