As tportal writes on the 24th of March, 2019, in just a few day’s time, it will have been a full two years since the adoption of Lex Agrokor. Four and a half months since his extradition to Croatia after a year of fighting his corner in London, there are still no actual indictments against Ivica Todorić and his managers in the former Agrokor system. After having announced his desire to enter into politics, followed by a brief yet rather deafening silence, N1’s guest was no less than the former owner of Agrokor, Ivica Todorić himself.
Asked to comment on the notion that he symbolised absolute power two years ago, built and owned the most successful company in the Balkans, and today he’s a destroyed businessman awaiting his indictment, the ever smiling Ivica Todorić said he was in exactly the same form and acts very much in the same way as he did two, three, or four years ago.
”I’m doing more than I’ve been doing for the past forty years and I’m going to be honest, maybe I’m even happier today, a happier man than I used to be,” a grinning Ivica Todorić told N1, saying that he was fighting for another thing now, and that is a fight against Croatia’s corrupt system. He said that he was far from destroyed, quite the contrary.
For the last two years, the state has been preparing a trial against you, claiming that you committed crimes within Agrokor…
”I don’t bother having anything to do with that, some accusations against me, what they’re saying, and what they’ve tried to imply, it will be one serious legal document of this shameful Croatian state … After thirty years, I left my company. In the last thirty years, everything remained within the company, all my mails, SMS’s, accounts, all my transactions, all my contracts, everything remained within the company! Why not show us just one receipt?! What they did in Agrokor in a year, what crimes they were committing…” questions Agrokor’s former top dog.
Although DORH argues that the value of the company fell due to debts, Ivica Todorić claims that he has full evidence of the value of the company.
”What they made out of Agrokor today, I can’t get 2.5 billion for the whole group. What destruction they’ve caused. When you talk about DORH and the process against me… Unbelievable. They claim I took some money. They know where the money went, where the accounts are. I took about 470 million euros in personal debt and gave it all to Agrokor. Agrokor was indebted to me, not me to Agrokor! And sure, it’s like I’ve taken something…” said Agrokor’s ex boss.
He also said that Božo Petrov lured him to a meeting and he arrived like something out of the mafia in the night. “That was a weird meeting, I did’t understand anything,” Ivica Todorić said.
When asked if he was looking for money from the Croatian Government for Agrokor, he said: ”What do you mean? What money? Agrokor wasn’t in trouble. It was only important for them that I came to be able to say that I came, so they could say that I was looking for something,”
He also said that none of the suppliers who worked with Agrokor had suffered any damage, but that was why he acted in the manner he did towards CNB/HNB’s governer Boris Vujčić, about whom he had few nice words to say.
“He absolutely ruined me, he’d talked to some vulturous funds, gave them preferential information. You’ll see what will still be done, what will be found out. That Vujčić has dragged Croatia to the bottom of the bottom. He put me, Agrokor, a thousand of our suppliers in position in which we had to pay more interest,” said Ivica Todorić.
He also commented on the possible return of Antonio Alvarez III (Yes, that’s really his name), who was among the very first to appear on Agrokor’s then crumbling stage just after the passing of Lex Agrokor, allowing the government to intervene in the enfeebled company’s affairs.
“This about them calling Mr. Alvarez and what they’re doing, you can see that they’re just lost, they don’t know what they’re doing, they don’t know where they’re going,” he remarked.
Ivica Todorić believes that the Fortenova Group, which will soon be the ”new” Agrokor, won’t actually exist for years, nor will it be anything compared with Agrokor’s entire business. He also believes that DORH is working to protect Andrej Plenković.
Make sure to follow our dedicated lifestyle, business and politics pages for more info on Ivica Todorić’s entry onto the Croatian political scene and much more.
