Further to the article written by Karel Hrubeš and published in the daily MF DNES and on the news website Idnes.cz entitled “10 billion Through J&T: Russia, Czechia, Caribbean”, which suggests J&T Finance Group SE (JTFG) is involved in unlawful activity, we believe it necessary to issue this press statement:

The internal procedures of J&T Banka (the “Bank”) are fully compliant with regulatory requirements for preventing the legitimisation of proceeds of crime and are subject to review by the supervisory authorities. Transactions from the Russian Federation are subject to stricter internal controls, and all suspicious payments are reported to the appropriate authorities. It can therefore not be precluded that the investigation underway had in fact been initiated on the basis of a notification from the Bank.

We consider it highly unfortunate that information from the investigation is being leaked and then interpreted by the media. To date, neither the Bank nor JTFG has been informed by any authority about any investigation or criminal complaint. Due to the obligation to maintain banking secrecy and confidentiality pursuant to Act No. 253/2008 Coll., on selected measures against legitimisation of proceeds of crime and financing of terrorism, that Bank may not disclose information about banking transactions or suspicious trading reported to the Financial Analytical Office.

We protest against the tone of the article, which, by self-servingly linking certain pieces of information, creates the impression that JTFG and the Bank are actively involved in channelling funds from the Russian Federation, an activity that is supposed to be the subject of the criminal investigation.

JTFG Group and all its companies are fulfilling all their obligations arising from the respective legal regulations, and we are not aware of any infringement.

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