Radovan Vítek/Wiki Commons

By Paul Serran with guest contributor Frank Parlato

This is the story of Radovan Vítek. For you and me, this name may not mean anything – but for thousands of Americans, it spells huge financial losses.

More than a billion dollars in US pension funds were allegedly lost in a scheme orchestrated by Vítek, according to lawsuits.

If he had pulled this stunt in the US, the Czech billionaire would most probably have gone to prison for securities fraud.

But in Europe, things run much differently.

European regulators did find that Vítek looted pension funds, concealed his control through shell companies ‘owned by his mother’.

While he paid fines, he was able to retain control of his empire. Europeans let him walk away with everything.

In the end, law enforcement is a matter of geography: in the US, his conduct would end his career and cause him to lose his freedom.

But in Europe, Radovan Vítek built an empire.

Vítek bought Rydinghurst manor from former Beatle Ringo Starr.

Vítek is married, with four children, and lives in Switzerland – but he also owns Rydinghurst, a 17th-century mansion with a 200-acre estate in Surrey, England.

He bought the property in 2015 from former Beatles member Ringo Starr for £13.5 million, so that his children could be educated in England.

But, according to Luxembourg regulators from the CSSF, Rydinghurst was not bought with the fruits of his labor or his genius.

It was bought, the CSSF found, with assets stripped from the ORCO Property Group, a public real estate company based in Capellen, Luxembourg.

Among ORCO’s major shareholders was Kingstown Capital, a Manhattan investment firm entrusted with more than a billion dollars in American pension funds.

Yes, you read it right: the castle was allegedly funded by retirement money stolen from US pensioners.

ORCO Property Group.

According to Luxembourg regulators, starting in 2012, Vítek used shell companies and false board actions to take control of ORCO.

Once he obtained the control of the real estate company, he is alleged to have acted as a corporate raider, an investor who acquire control of a company not to grow it or to operate it long-term, but to sell off its most valuable assets.

The result was catastrophic: Kingstown Capital lost 94 percent of its investment. So did JPMorgan and other investors.

Through the shell companies he used, Vítek was able to accumulate share control while avoiding disclosure.

ORCO’s founder Jean-François Ott

It is claimed that ORCO’s founder Jean-François Ott became a willing coconspirator who walked away with a golden parachute of more than $18 million.

Ott bought millions of ORCO shares with money arranged by Vítek, having reportedly lied to American investors, saying the shares were his.

Once control was secured, Ott pushed through the sale of ORCO’s crown jewel: the Endurance Office Fund, with properties worth about €330 million.

The fund was sold for less than 20 percent of its value to J&T Banka – a front for Vítek.

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The remaining Endurance assets were bought by a company called Sidoti, even though there was another company willing to pay more.

What the ORCO board didn’t know, and was not told, is that Sidoti was secretly owned by Vitek’s mother, Milada Malá.

Malá bought the €330 million fund for just €52 million, only to flip it to Vítek’s own company CPI for €65 million.

Nice family business: the mother got a €13 million profit and Vitek gained $265 million.

And what about ORCO? The stock collapsed, and Kingstown exited its investment with a near total loss.

In the end, Vitek was allegedly able to siphon nearly a billion in assets from ORCO.

In 2017, Luxembourg’s financial regulator CSSF concluded that Vítek, Ott, and the shell companies owned by Milada Malá had secretly acted ‘in concert’ to seize control of ORCO, in violation of takeover and transparency laws.

But European regulators, well intended but toothless, hit Radovan Vítek with a simple fine.

In America, prosecutors most probably would have brought RICO, securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy, and false-statement charges – the works.

In all likelihood, asset forfeiture and decades in federal prison would follow.

Vítek’s CPI.

Kingstown did sue Vítek in 2019, in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (‘RICO’) in the United States.

Vítek’s CPI ‘saw no merit to the claims’ and stated that the lawsuit ‘for a headline-grabbing unsubstantiated amount’, intended ‘to force an undue settlement’ through bad press about CPI and Vitek.

On 4 September 2020, the SDNY Court dismissed the claims on lack of jurisdiction – but NOT on merit.

American teachers, nurses, and firefighters, whose pensions were allegedly looted, have no idea that their hard-earned retirement money financed a mother-and-son operation, a real-estate empire, and even a Beatle-owned British manor.

But the story doesn’t end here – a group of people who believe they were swindled by Vítek are organizing, and, while we are not in a position to disclose any details, further legal action is expected.