ZAGREB, September 10, 2018 – The opposition Živi Zid party said on Monday it had reported the Istrian Democratic Party’s (IDS) Member of the European Parliament Ivan Jakovčić to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) for receiving fees as a member of the Afarak company’s supervisory board during his term as an MEP.
Živi Zid secretary general Tihomir Lukanić told reporters the party decided to report Jakovčić after media claims that he received fees both as a member and chairman of the supervisory board of Afarak, a company Lukanić said was owned by a man who presented himself as one of the strategic partners of the Uljanik shipbuilding group.
Lukanić said the party reported Jakovčić because he did not declare either the sources or amounts of his fees. “We expect OLAF to conduct an investigation and contact us… and we will inform the public,” he added.
Damir Gruenbaum, an Istrian County councillor, called out Jakovčić for preferential treatment, nepotism and clientelism in the county and said he controlled a majority of the media.
“The Afarak company for which Mr Jakovčić lobbied is involved in the Paradise Papers affair in Panama where it was discovered in offshore data bases that Mr Končar doesn’t own 30% of Afarak, as he said in Finland, but 70%. Finland’s tax authority automatically wanted to make him pay 200 million euro to small shareholders. He has appealed but appeals won’t help him. He has also been fined 40 million euro for everything that happened,” said Gruenbaum.
He said Končar had opened some 30 companies in Istria, all owned by companies from exotic countries, and that they were owned by Končar or his associates.
“The IDS has thoroughly connected everything since the ’90s and Jakovčić’s colleagues knew about everything he did,” said Živi Zid president Ivan Vilibor Sinčić.
Jakovčić has recently announced he will not run for re-election as an MEP.
