{"id":3896,"date":"2015-07-29T14:46:22","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T12:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/en\/?p=3896"},"modified":"2015-07-29T16:33:55","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T14:33:55","slug":"privatization-agency-official-in-deal-with-saric-associates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/en\/privatization-agency-official-in-deal-with-saric-associates\/","title":{"rendered":"Privatization Agency Official in Deal with \u0160ari\u0107 Associates"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bankrupt company owned by accused drug lord Darko \u0160ari\u0107\u2019 s gang that had been frozen by the state has been quietly transferred to a company owned-in-part by the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Privatization Agency.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By: Bojana Jovanovi\u0107<\/em><\/p>\n

Trgopromet, a company majority owned by chairman Muamer Red\u017eovi\u0107, along with Vujadin Jankovi\u0107, a businessman under investigation for privatization fraud, used its ownership of questionable debt from the Jedinstvo agricultural company to take it over without paying any money.<\/p>\n

Jedinstvo grew corn and beans and operated on about 500 hectares of land in Vojvodina. The land alone is worth at least \u20ac1.7 million.<\/p>\n

Sa\u0161a Ivani\u0107, the deputy special prosecutor for organized crime, who is trying \u0160ari\u0107, attempted to stop the transfer, saying that the debt Trgopromet bought is nothing more than drug proceeds that \u0160ari\u0107\u2019s gang was laundering through the company. His attempt to block the transfer failed.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor said the move is an attempt by \u0160ari\u0107\u2019s money laundering gang to keep the state from permanently taking over his company.<\/p>\n

Red\u017eovi\u0107 said he only became aware of the connection to the deals when reporters from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)\/KRIK contacted him. Red\u017eovi\u0107 said he was unaware that he owned a share of the debt or that he was on the supervisory board of Trgopromet.<\/p>\n

Losing an Investment<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Muamer<\/a>

Muamer Red\u017eovi\u0107<\/p><\/div>\n

Jedinstvo is based in Gajdobra, a small town near Novi Sad. Last December, former Jedinstvo workers and small shareholders in Gajdobra were growing concerned.<\/p>\n

They had gotten a copy of a reorganization plan for the company which was submitted to the court by two creditors: Jankovi\u0107, and Kraljevo-based Trgopromet, a trading company jointly owned by Red\u017eovi\u0107 and Jankovi\u0107.<\/p>\n

The plan looked like it might leave out small shareholders and they wrote to the Agency for Privatization asking it to look into the matter. The shareholders said they did not trust Jankovi\u0107\u2019s \u201csuspicious activities and his real intentions about cancellation of our shares.\u201d<\/p>\n

What they didn\u2019t know was that Red\u017eovi\u0107, the man they were asking for help, was a shareholder of Trgopromet and potentially stood to profit from the deal.<\/p>\n

Jedinstvo had been a successful agricultural company when the state privatized it in 2007 for a price of \u20ac3.4 million. However, the buyer never finished paying the state for the company due to financial problems.<\/p>\n

In 2009, that buyer sold Jedinstvo to Radovan \u0160trbac, a lawyer, for \u20ac 1.15million. \u0160trbac paid in cash, splitting the payment between Jedinstvo\u2019s owner (\u20ac700,000) with the Privatization Agency getting the rest (\u20ac455,000). The cash payments were unusual, with \u0160trbac bringing large bags of bills to the bank.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors would later claim that \u0160trbac and Bla\u017eo Dedi\u0107, a Montenegrin businessman who allegedly invested in Jedinstvo, were fronts for drug gangs and \u0160trbac bought the company to launder drug proceeds for \u0160ari\u0107\u2019s organization. \u0160trbac and \u0160ari\u0107 have denied the allegations.<\/p>\n

Balkan Warrior<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few months later, prosecutors and intelligence agents from Serbia working with police from Argentina and Uruguay and the US Drug Enforcement Agency started Balkan Warrior, a joint effort to interdict the cocaine trade from South America to Europe.<\/p>\n

In 2009, a ship prosecutors say was controlled by \u0160ari\u0107, was caught with 2.1 tons of cocaine off the coast of Uruguay. Serbian police rounded up the leadership of \u0160ari\u0107\u2019s gang using information captured from around the world. \u0160trbac was identified as part of the gang responsible for laundering money. His trial is ongoing.<\/p>\n

\"Company<\/a>

Company Jedinstvo<\/p><\/div>\n

After \u0160trbac\u2019s arrest, the Special Court froze Jedinstvo\u2019s assets. However, behind the scenes, \u0160trbac began working with Dedi\u0107 to move the company to another owner.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Jankovi\u0107 appeared and claimed that both he and his company Trgopromet (where he and Red\u017eovi\u0107 jointly were majority shareholders), were Jedinstvo\u2019s biggest creditors. As such, they were entitled under Serbian law to submit a reorganization plan for the now-bankrupt company.<\/p>\n

Both Jankovi\u0107 and Trgopromet produced signed agreements with \u0160ari\u0107 associates \u0160trbac and Dedi\u0107 to take over debt they said the agricultural company owed them:<\/p>\n

In November 2012, \u0160trbac had signed an agreement with Jankovi\u0107<\/a> to take over 60 million dinars (US$670,000) in debt owed by Jedinstvo.<\/p>\n

In May 2013, the Montenegrin tourism company Maestralturs, which is owned by Dedi\u0107, who is also suspected of being a \u0160ari\u0107 associate, transferred a debt from Jedinstvo of about 40 million dinars ($US450,000) to Trgopromet.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors and reporters found a number of suspicious circumstances involved in the deal:<\/p>\n