{"id":19850,"date":"2017-11-14T15:14:35","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T14:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/en\/?p=19850"},"modified":"2017-11-16T14:15:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T13:15:01","slug":"leaked-documents-reveal-offshore-holdings-controversial-serbian-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/en\/leaked-documents-reveal-offshore-holdings-controversial-serbian-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaked Documents Reveal Offshore Holdings of Controversial Serbian Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

A data leak from Appleby, a law firm based in Bermuda, sheds light on the business and real estate empire of Nenad Popovic, a Serbian minister found to be worth at least US$ 100 million \u2013 and possibly higher.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Appleby declared Popovic as Politically Exposed Person or PEP and a \u201chigh risk.\u201d The firm also dug deeper into his backround and noted his connections to notorious financier Marc Rich and his companies\u2019 activities in Russia. The request was never completed after being scuttled at some point by one of the parties.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Dragana Pe\u0107o and Stevan Doj\u010dinovi\u0107<\/em><\/p>\n

The minister is widely known in Serbia as \u201cRussia\u2019s man\u201d in the government. In fact, according to media, one of his first meetings after being named to his post last June was with Russia\u2019s ambassador to Serbia, Alexander Chepurin.<\/p>\n

The Serbian People\u2019s Party, which he founded in 2014, advocates closer relations between Belgrade and Moscow and opposes Serbia\u2019s plans to join the European Union. Moreover, he built his business empire, controlled by his company, ABS Electro, in Russia.<\/p>\n

Popovic\u2019s Russia ties go back years. In 2008, he supported selling Serbia\u2019s public oil company, NIS, to Gazprom, the Russian state-owned oil giant. According to his biography, he lectured at two universities in Moscow. And he recently told an interviewer that he is \u201cproud\u201d of the support he receives from United Russia, Russia\u2019s ruling political party.<\/p>\n

Popovic is minister-without-portfolio in charge of innovation and technology. It is not clear how he got the post, given that the Serbian government calls the country\u2019s integration into the European Union (EU) a priority.<\/p>\n

Paradise Papers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Paradise Papers is a set of millions of internal documents and emails from Appleby, an offshore law firm, that were leaked to the German newspaper S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Serbia\u2019s KRIK, and 92 other media partners from 67 countries.<\/p>\n

The papers relating to Popovic show that, despite his admiration for Russia and his career as a Serbian politician, he has been a legal resident and taxpayer in Switzerland since 2008.<\/p>\n

They also show that he is very rich. Popovic has made no secret of his wealth, but the leak has, for the first time, made its extent clear. An audit by the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers AG (PwC) discussed in the papers estimates his worth at least $75 million.<\/p>\n

The documents show that he controls offshore companies registered in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands (BVI), companies in Russia, and property in at least three countries.<\/p>\n

They also indicate that, while Appleby was initially eager to help Popovic manage his empire, it appeared to stall and delay finishing the job after discovering more about his history and his associates. It is unclear from the leaked documents which side backed away although Popovic has claimed it was him.<\/p>\n

According to the leaked documents:<\/p>\n