Ivo Svoboda (6 April 1948 – 23 February 2017) was a Czech politician and economist who served as 3rd

Finance Minister of the Czech Republic The Finance Minister of the Czech Republic is the head of the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic which is concerned with financial and monetary matters. The Finance Minister is a member of Prime Minister's Cabinet and is allowed to at ...

from 1998 to 1999 in government of Prime Minister Miloš Zeman. Svoboda started his political career as a Deputy in the

Czech National Council The Czech National Council ( cs, Česká národní rada, ČNR) was the legislative body of the Czech Republic since 1968 when the Czech Republic was created as a member state of Czech-Slovak federation. It was legally transformed into the Cham ...

(from 1990 to 1992). Since 1997, he was the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the company Liberta in Mělník. From 1997 to 1999, he served as the Deputy Chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party. He became the Minister of Finance in July 1998 as his party won the

national election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

, following a campaign promising voters a corruption-free government. In July 1999, police announced their intention to start prosecution proceedings on criminal charges against Svoboda while he was still in the Cabinet. His term as Minister of Finance came to an end less than a week later, as he was sacked by President Václav Havel. Svoboda was sentenced to 5 years in prison in 2005 due to his involvement in tunneling of the Liberta company, becoming the first government minister following the Velvet Revolution to receive such a sentence. He left prison in October 2008, after having served three years of his sentence.

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Official biography
(

Government of the Czech Republic The Government of the Czech Republic ( cz, Vláda České republiky) exercises executive power in the Czech Republic. The members of the government are the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic (Chairman of the Government), the deputy prime min ...

) 1948 births 2017 deaths Czech Social Democratic Party MPs Finance ministers of the Czech Republic Czech criminals Charles University alumni {{CzechRepublic-politician-stub