Stock Photo - The Czech politicians who were selling a minority stake in the MUS coal mining company in 1999 knew well that Czech investors were buying it, although the U.S. Appian group was the official buyer, Jacques de Groote, who represented Appian then, has told CTK in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, September 22, 2014. According to de Groote, then industry and trade minister Miroslav Gregr told Czech police in 2013 that it had been known that the MUS managers had already bought a majority stake in the company and wanted to gain full control of MUS. Gregr allegedly said he had not considered this a problem, de Groote said. In October 2013, a Swiss court imposed prison sentences on former MUS Czech managers Jiri Divis, Antonin Kolacek, Marek Cmejla, Petr Kraus and Oldrich Klimecky for frauds and money laundering. The managers bought the company's shares for its money, which they never returned. The Belgian financier de Groote, 87, was sentenced to a financial penalty. (CTK Photo/Martina Vasickova)