The boss refuses to return to Croatia and hires a top British lawyer to keep him in London.
As RTL brings us on the 17th of October, 2017, it appears that Ivica Todorić has hired Michael O’Kane, a top British lawyer who has dealt with complicated cases, such as those involving the Russian cartel, and now, the ex Agrokor boss.
It might have been easy enough to arrest the twelve people involved in Agrokor’s former Administration, but getting to the top dog is about to become a hell of a lot harder. Despite his announcements in which he expresses his will to offer himself and his testimony to the judiciary, Ivica Todorić is preparing for a fierce legal battle against extradition in the British capital. As RTL Direct exclusively reports, the ”gazda” has hired no less than one of the most formidable British lawyers – Michael O’Kane.
In spite of his father’s obvious desire to stay where he is, his son Ante does not appear to have such ambitions and will in all likelihood soon return to Zagreb and give a statement. The younger son, Ivan, has not yet expressed his intentions.
Like a real boss, Ivica Todorić states – ”If there is any responsibility to be taken, then that responsibility is exclusively mine!” All this, however, is being written on his infamous blog from the somewhat safe haven of the United Kingdom, a decent enough distance from Zagreb, he hopes, at least for now.
Investigations into individuals of interest are continuing, even into Hrvoje Balent, the husband of Ivica Todorić’s daughter, Iva, but not Ivica or his sons.
“He is currently away [from Croatia], on business, his children are employed out there, he’ll be back when he needs to be. I can’t comment [on it] when I’ve not even contacted him in the last couple of days,” said Cedo Prodanović, Ivica Todorić’s attorney.
Ivica Todorić didn’t receive a call from investigators, but his eldest son, Ante, who has been staying in London for a month now, received a telephone call from the police and provided an address.
The arrival of Ante Todorić from the United Kingdom for examination in Selsko is expected in the coming days, and if Ivica Todorić ignores the calls of investigators, DORH will begin a criminal prosecution.
If the state attorney is successful in convincing the court that Ivica Todorić is indeed on the run, an arrest warrant will follow (most likely a European Arrest Warrant) but even this isn’t a solid guarantee that extradition is a go.
In 2015, more than 16,000 custodial orders were issued across the European Union, and only every third one was a success. Of that, every eighth one was issued for Great Britain, but how many of them were actually carried out remains unknown. As another example of this is that the German courts flatly refused to extradite a huge 195 people.
Todorić’s latest blog post, which we translated into English for you here, might tell us something about how things are for the former Agrokor boss at the moment. Aside from his favourite culprits to sling mud at, namely Agrokor’s government appointed extraordinary commissioner Ante Ramljak and Croatia’s Deputy PM Martina Dalić, this is the first time that Todorić has publicly named someone else that he claims to have been involved in the so-called ”destruction” of Agrokor – Damir Kuštrak.
Although Todorić first states that the twelve people arrested who were part of Agrokor’s former Administration have done nothing wrong, just a few lines later in the same blog post, he accuses one of the detained individuals, Damir Kuštrak, of wrongdoing.
What will the top dog’s next move be now that he has the talented O’Kane on his side? Who knows…
