Slovakian Governor Kažimír convicted of bribery in fresh embarrassment for ECB

Peter Kažimír, governor of the Slovakian central bank and a close ally of Prime Minister Robert Fico, was convicted of bribery on Thursday and fined €200,000.

Kažimír had been charged with offering €48,000 in 2016 to František Imrecz, the former president of Slovakia's Financial Administration, to speed up tax proceedings for companies owned by his acquaintance, Ladislav Rehák. Kažimír was Fico’s finance minister at the time.

The ruling confirms an earlier order by the court and doubles the fine imposed.

Kažimír, who has repeatedly failed to show up in court for the trial, has not commented but is expected to hold a press conference later, the newspaper SME reported. He is expected to appeal.

The news is a fresh blow to the image of the European Central Bank (ECB), which has been plagued by the financial improprieties of its Governing Council members over the years. Last year, Edward Scicluna, governor of the Central Bank of Malta, was forced to step down over allegations that he acquiesced to a corrupt hospital privatization deal while finance minister.

Kažimír’s conviction also represents another unwelcome distraction for the ECB as it goes through a major rotation of its personnel. The Slovak is one of five national central bank representatives on the Governing Council whose terms expire this year.  

In addition, Slovenia’s central bank is also currently without a permanent head, with parliament unable to agree on a candidate to replace the departed Boštjan Vasle.

Finland’s Olli Rehn was reappointed for a second term in March without any complications, and Martin Kocher is due to succeed Robert Holzmann at the Austrian National Bank in September.

But other posts have been taken hostage by domestic politics. The fate of Portugal’s Mário Centeno, once considered a shoo-in for a second term, is now up in the air after his political allies in the Socialist party were weakened in elections this month. The nomination process will now be overseen by the new government of Luís Montenegro.

Elsewhere, the Dutch central bank has also held off nominating candidates to succeed Klaas Knot, whose term, like Centeno’s, is up at the end of June.

Kažimír’s term is due to end on Saturday but, as the government has failed to nominate a successor so far, he is likely to carry on as acting governor for the time being. That would mean he’ll still take part in the ECB’s next Governing Council meeting on June 4-5.

This story has been updated.