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 Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: People * Newton (surname), including a list of people with the surname * N ...

, a company that focused on trading on the

financial markets A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial marke ...

and related advisory services. In the 1990s, he took part in the restructuring and management of numerous industrial enterprises and

financial institutions A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institution, is a business entity that provides service as an intermediary for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial ins ...

, at home and abroad. The most important projects at the time included Všeobecný vzájemný penzijní fond ( General Mutual Pension Fund, today ING Pension Fund), the Otrokovice heat generation plant and the Newton Media. Kraus invested a significant amount of finances in educating and supporting university students. In 2003, he founded Newton College. In the framework of such efforts, he then initiated the establishment of the Erudikon Endowment Fund in 2005 to provide university access to those individuals whose life situation would otherwise make it impossible.

MUS case

He ended close cooperation with

MUS Mus or MUS may refer to: Abbreviations * MUS, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code for Mauritius * MUS, the IATA airport code for Minami Torishima Airport * MUS, abbreviation for the Centre for Modern Urban Studies on Campus The Hague, Leiden Un ...

already in 2002; nevertheless, the Swiss courts found him guilty (verdict not final) from alleged money laundering. As a result of the Swiss charges and the re-opening of the MUS case by the Czech authorities in 2012, his current accounts were frozen and his assets, including the home in which he was living, were seized. Since the very beginning of the investigation, Kraus has argued that he, like the rest of the sentenced entrepreneurs and managers, saved

and thus it was absurd to criminalise their efforts. Even with regard to the fact that MUS is, thanks to the then successful restructuring, a stable and important company employing thousands of people. On Sunday, 20 October 2013, he proclaimed the following about MUS on the

Czech Television Czech Television ( ; abbreviation: ČT) is a public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting six channels. Established after breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1992, it is the successor to Czechoslovak Television founded in 1953. H ...

programme Otázky Václava Moravce uestion Time with Václav Moravec "This is a dispute about the form that the transformation of the Czech economy took. It is a dispute that should not be relegated to the offices of prosecutors, but aired out in the public domain to allow discussion on whether the process should have taken place as it had."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kraus, Petr 1966 births Czech businesspeople Living people