Radim Špaček (politician)

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Radim Špaček (December 25, 1959) was a Czech politician. In 2005 he was charged with a large scale fraud.

Špaček had studied biology (specialising on genetics). During 1992-96 he served as a member of Parliament of the Czech Republic (in Česká Národní Rada (Czech National Council), later renamed to Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic). He was member of Civic Democratic Alliance (ODA) and was responsible for its ecology strategy. Later, he worked as a deputy at the ministry of ecology (ministerstvo životního prostředí) and then as an advisor at the ministry of local development (ministerstvo pro místní rozvoj).

It his last position he coordinated distribution of money from Phare, a programme by European Union transferring pre-accession financial help to countries of Central Europe. According to police, in 2003 he and several others started fraudulent operations that eventually siphoned out 229 millions of Czech crowns out of the programme. In 2005, after growing suspicion from the side of EU police investigation had started and Špaček and several other participants in this scheme were arrested. 144 millions of Czech crowns were safeguarded immediately. EU had stopped the funding and restored it only after several months. As of 2006, the case is still under investigation.