Another day in Croatia, another problem for Croatian football’s most powerful man.
DORH opened a new investigation against Zdravko Mamić, reports Index.hr on December 28, 2017.
The long-time boss of Dinamo, who is already burdened with two indictments for economic crime at Dinamo, is now suspected of taking approximately HRK 19.505 million from the club’s account in Austria between 2004 and 2007 when he was Executive Vice President of Dinamo. Mamić is being accused of transferring part of these unauthorized funds to his brother’s bank account.
The County State Attorney’s Office in Zagreb based their claims on the results of USKOK investigations and surveys obtained through international legal assistance and criminal records of the Independent Sector for the Financial Investigation of the Tax Administration of the Ministry of Finance. They issued a ruling on the conduct of an investigation against the Croatian citizen because of the established suspicion that he committed a criminal offense of abuse of trust in economic business, said DORH.
The justification states that there is ‘reasonable suspicion that a 58-year-old, as the acting executive vice president and board member of a sports club from the beginning of February 2004 to March 7, 2007; in order to obtain substantial unrealistic gains for themselves and others at the expense of that club; withdrew a total of at least EUR 2,535,574.71 in cash from the club’s account from one Austrian bank (the defendant was an authorized person for the cash funds of that account) without real and legal grounds, and part of the money from the club’s account transferred to the brother’s bank account.’
There is a reasonable suspicion that the 58-year-old defendant obtained unproductive property gain in the amount of at least EUR 2,572,432.50 or HRK 19,056,706,80 in the manner described and that he received unprofitable property gain of at least EUR 58,807.40 or HRK 448,626.03, claims DORH.
The money mentioned, which is suspected to be used for their needs, damaged the football club with a total of at least EUR 2,631,239.90 or HRK 19,505,332.83.
The Zdravko Mamić clan has two indictments filed against them so far for the suspicion of stealing HRK 260 million from Dinamo Zagreb. Mamić was the president of the club during this incriminating period and after he was loaded with accusations, retired to the position of advisor.
Based on the first indictment, Mamić and his associates were tried before the Osijek County Court. In that trial, Zdravko Mamić, his brother Zoran Mamić, former director of Dinamo and current director of HNS Damir Vrbanović and tax collector Milan Pernar were charged with having deducted HRK 116 million from Dinamo and damaging the state budget by HRK 12.2 million.
Key witnesses at the trial – Luka Modrić, Dejan Lovren, and Modrić’s mother-in-law Vesna Juraić – are now under investigation by the prosecutor’s office in Osijek for suspicion of giving false testimony at the trial.
The file of the first indictment consists of 167 envelopes with 14,826 pages and 2,388 USKOK evidentiary proposals.
USKOK claims, among other things, that a transfer contract was signed for Dejan Lovren from Dinamo to Lyon in France in early 2010, with a deduction of HRK 66 million, which was entirely due to Dinamo, and subsequently, the documentation allowed Lovren to qualify for a 50 percent share of the transfer allowance that ended up with Zdravko and Zoran Mamić.
In court, USKOK wants to prove that even NK Dinamo, at the order of Zdravko Mamić, without the knowledge of the body of the club, gave Zoran Mamić a loan of over HRK 24 million which he did not duly return, and which, in the view of the Tax Administration, is a legal business where they have to pay prescribed allowances. The plaintiff claims that Zoran Mamić returned the loans with the funds of the club, which enabled the defendants Vrbanović and Zdravko Mamić to falsely claim that Dejan Lovren was entitled to 50 percent of the compensation for the transfer to Lyon and that the money was forwarded to Zoran Mamić, thus ultimately returning the controversial loans.
USKOK claims a similar story with Luka Modrić’s illegal transfer to Tottenham in April 2008.
USKOK accused Zdravko Mamić of backdating the annex to the professional gaming agreement between Dinamo and Luka Modric, which was made at a time when Modrić had already gone to England, to justify the payment of 50 percent of the transfer compensation to Luka Modrić. The money was taken by Modrić and handed Zdravko Mamić and his family, as he said at the trial.
In the second indictment, Zdravko Mamić and six associates – Zoran and Marija Mamić, Damir Vrbanović, Nikky Antonija Vuksan, Igor Krout and Sandra Stipančića – are charged with drawing money from Dinamo via offshore companies registered in Belize, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Seychelles and other foreign tax oasis from December 2004 to December 2015.
USKOK claims that the head of these companies was Mamić’s son Mario, Vuksan, Vrbanović, Krota, and Stipančić. USKOK further claims that Zdravko Mamić signed a contract between the mentioned companies and Dinamo, stating that the agreements were contracted for fictitious services. The firms of Mamić’s son and his associates have no basis for economic rights from the future transfer of Dinamo’s players. Vedran Ćorluka, Luka Modrić, Tin Jedvaj and many others were investigated.
The Swiss part of the investigation was led by prosecutor Esther Omlin who recently held an exclusive interview in the documentary “Der Fall Mamić“, which was broadcast by Index Sport for German television WDR. The foreign companies’ Mamić’s son is behind, and other suspects have drawn money from Dinamo, according to a study in which Croatia sought and received international legal aid in Switzerland.
The club had fictitious accounts that led companies to take non-existent debts to Dinamo’s players and perform false transfer services to Dinamo’s players, according to USKOK. According to the indictment, Dinamo has paid at least HRK 144 million to the mentioned companies, and the money has ended up with the accused.
Translated from Index.hr
