Marek Čmejla (born 7 June 1967) is a Czech entrepreneur, fraudster and musician.

Career

Čmejla completed his studies in technical cybernetics at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the

Czech Technical University in Prague Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU, cs, České vysoké učení technické v Praze, ČVUT) is one of the largest university, universities in the Czech Republic with 8 faculties, and is one of the oldest institutes of technology in Centra ...

and has acted as a manager at NFMG Financial Management Group (NFMG), Appian Group and other companies. In the 1990s, he was the bass guitarist of the band Tichá Dohoda. In 2013, he co-founded the band Všichni Svatí, which released its debut album “Vytáhni mě z davu” (“Pull Me Out of the Crowd”) in 2013. Čmejla can be labelled, with a bit of hyperbole, the embodiment of the American dream in the Czech environment. He started his entrepreneurial activities while still at university, first selling books. After a number of years working

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

, he partnered up with a classmate from basic school,

Petr Kraus Petr Kraus (born 10 November 1966) is a Czech entrepreneur, manager, and founder of Newton group. Career In 1994, he and Antonín Koláček founded Newton Financial Management Group, a company that focused on trading on the financial markets and ...

, who founded NFMG, a financial group, in the mid-1990s. NFMG gradually became one of the most important non-banking companies in the Czech Republic. Mr Čmejla was the company’s Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors. NFMG was originally established by

and Antonín Koláček. Over time, Čmejla acquired fifty percent of NFMG, and held on to this share until 2001, when he sold it to Kraus. In 2002, he became the CEO of

Appian Group Appian of Alexandria (; grc-gre, Ἀππιανὸς Ἀλεξανδρεύς ''Appianòs Alexandreús''; la, Appianus Alexandrinus; ) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who flourished during the reigns of Emperors of Rome Trajan, Hadri ...

Europe. In 2003, Čmejla, together with

Jiří Diviš Jiří Diviš (born 16 March 1956) is a Swiss entrepreneur and manager originally from Czechoslovakia. Career In the 1970s, he was played basketball for the teams Baník Most and Slavoj Vyšehrad. He emigrated to Switzerland in 1979 and stud ...

, coordinated the strategic entrance of Appian Group into

Škoda Plzeň Škoda means ''pity'' in the Czech and Slovak languages. It may also refer to: Czech brands and enterprises * Škoda Auto, automobile and previously bicycle manufacturer in Mladá Boleslav ** Škoda Motorsport, the division of Škoda Auto respons ...

, which, following Lubomír Soudek’s era, was in a state of clinical death. Appian Group purchased a part of the company for 350 million Czech crowns from the State and the remainder from the receiver in bankruptcy for 450 million crowns. The company then underwent successful restructuring, and today is a leading producer of

transportation system A transport network, or transportation network, is a network or graph in geographic space, describing an infrastructure that permits and constrains movement or flow. Examples include but are not limited to road networks, railways, air routes, ...

MUS case

In October 2013, the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

courts sentenced him to 48 months in prison for fraud and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

. He was to have committed these crimes when Appian purchased a minority share in Mostecká uhelná společnost (MUS) from the Czech State in 1999. He appealed against this decision at the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland in Lausanne. In an interview for the daily '' Právo'' on 16 April regarding the MUS case, he said that "the idea that someone in the mid-1990s was chewing on the end of a pencil and planning to defraud the Czech State over the next twenty years and steal MUS is so bizarre that a person who makes such a claim has to be mentally ill or have something up his sleeve, or both." In the same interview, Čmejla provided his assessment of the situation in which MUS found itself in 1999. To quote: "The fact that the brown coal industry even exists in this country today is due in a large part to the management of MUS at the time. The State decided to shut it down, and the management, in the interest of the company, decided to do everything in its power to ensure its survival."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cmejla, Marek 1967 births Living people Czech businesspeople Czech fraudsters Czech musicians Czech Technical University in Prague alumni