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According to this article, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico offered a reward of 1 million euros for catching Jan Kuciak's murder(s):

The government of Slovakia announced the reward Monday in a statement on its website, saying the money would go to anyone providing "relevant information leading to the capture, criminal charges and conviction of the perpetrators of the murder."

He resigns less than three weeks after this announcement:

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico officially resigned Thursday, less than three weeks after the murder of an investigative reporter and his fiancée shocked the nation.

According to a Slovak law, cash transactions have clear limits:

Two individuals cannot legally exchange sums larger than 15 000 euro. Typical transaction would be represented by a used vehicle purchase, real estate transfer, or a loan between two individuals. Cash transfers between any other entities are capped at 5 000 euro. This means all transfer business to customer, business to owner, or business to business (in any direction) are required to be performed electronically, if reaching over 5 000 euro.

So, one should expect to not see large amounts of cash flying around. A PM next to a pile of money would sound even stranger.

Question: Why did Slovak PM also use a pile of cash when he announced the reward for catching Jan Kuciak's murder(s)?

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    It might have just been a visual way to show how much money it is, and that the pile itself isn't actually what would be given to whoever gets the reward. It looks more impressive than him holding a check with '1 million euros' written on it.
    – Giter
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 15:21
  • @Giter - I don't know how regular Slovaks see this, but in my country such display of cash would make a terrible bad impression.
    – Alexei
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 16:07
  • Yeah, I also don't know how the average Slovak would see it. In my country(America), I think most people would think it was either very cool or very odd.
    – Giter
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 17:33

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The money on the table is an eye catching way to raise the profile of a financial reward.

Note that even if there is money on the table, it doesn't mean it will be paid in that way. For security reasons, it would likely be paid electronically.

Finally, from your quote re: transfers, the government is neither a business, owner nor customer.

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    Nice last point. But if the government gives you €1.000.000 and the legal limit for transaction is €15.000, there are going to be lots of issues if you bring that kind of money to your bank. The government could provide a certificate acknowledging the source, but it would be a situation unusual that probably the bank would not have an easy way to validate such document and it would raise a lot of alarms.
    – SJuan76
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 17:56
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I agree with Bad Bishop answer (and some comments) that the money in the table produces more impact that just the number being mentioned or published, but I would want to add about the detail that it was the PM himself (Mr. Fico) the one to announce the reward.

Mr. Fico did came until a lot of heat due to alleged links to corruption cases in Slovakia, with lots of suspicion among the people the street that the people behind that corruption were the ones who ordered Jan Kuciak's murder. In fact, this is why at the end he had to resign.

So, it is not only the money that was being advertised, but it also served a political declaration that the PM did fully intend to find the murderers1. Probably in the hope of silencing people blaming him (directly or indirectly) because, who guilty person would offer that kind of money to help the investigation?.

I think that that picture (not only of the money, but of Mr. Fico showing the money) is what justifies the rather unusual staging of the announcement.

1 Please note that I only say that he is making a political declaration, not if such declaration is true or false. I certainly do not have any information to even guess about Mr. Fico possible implication.

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