The criminal complaint against Deputy Prime Minister Dalić and government-appointed commissioner in Agrokor Ramljak has also been filed.
An unknown person has filed a criminal complaint with the State Prosecutor’s Office (DORH) against Economy Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Martina Dalić, the government-appointed commissioner in Agrokor Ante Ramljak and a number of other persons associated with the extraordinary administration and the Knighthead investment fund, due to a number of alleged criminal offenses of abuse of office and authority committed as part of a joint criminal enterprise, reports Jutarnji List on September 26, 2017.
The anonymous complaint has been sent to 40 other addresses as well, including the state leadership, a number of MPs and party leaders, as well as the media. Although speculation has emerged immediately that the author of the anonymous submission is Agrokor owner Ivica Todorić, primarily because the content is mostly similar to allegations which he has published on his blog in recent days, this information has not been confirmed.
“With the intention to take over Agrokor and use its sale to obtain unlawful material gain for themselves at the expense of Croatia and its economy, Martina Dalić, together with Ante Ramljak, tried to destroy the value of Agrokor and organised a joint criminal enterprise. They accepted and approved the purchase of 49 percent of Agrokor’s bonds at the 70 percent lower price by the Knighthead Fund, represented by Wilhelm Hemetsberger, providing the fund with 70 million euros in profits, despite a whole range of conflicts of interests of involved members of the criminal enterprise…”, claims the complaint.
The focus point of the alleged criminal enterprise is the Knighthead Fund, which is led by an unknown person. The complaint emphasises that the fund is linked to all participants of the criminal enterprise, in particular with Wilhelm Hemetsberger and Klaus Request, former advisors of CAIB Austria, who are now advising Ante Ramljak, as well as with Tin Dolički and Boris Šavorić’s law firms.
Šavorić is accused that, without having formal authority and despite the conflict of interest, because he was a lawyer for Agrokor’s major creditor, the Russian VTB bank, he wrote the so-called “Lex Agrokor,” after which he became an advisor to Ramljak. The complaint also mentions the roles of CVC Fund, Alessandro Debellius, Alix Partners, Alistair Beveridge, as well as the Questus and Texo Management, Kraš, Atlantic Group and many others. It is claimed that this group had been closely following Agrokor since 2016 and that this year it has prepared the ground and started the action of taking over Agrokor.
The State Attorney’s Office has received the criminal report and will deal with it in a regular procedure. The investigators are expected to analyse the complaint and check its allegations to determine whether they are founded.
However, this should not have any impact on the primary investigation in the Agrokor case, which has been led for months by the State Attorney’s Office in Zagreb, in cooperation with the police and other state institutions and experts. This investigation deals with possible illegalities in the operations of Agrokor and its affiliated companies until April 2017, up to the activation of the Lex Agrokor and the appointment of extraordinary administration.
It is believed that they are investigating public accusations about false financial statements which covered up business losses, which is why pre-investigative actions were launched. The PwC’s audit report on Agrokor’s business results in 2016, which will be published by the end of this week, will be of great significance for the investigation. If the international audit firm confirms in its findings the allegations that Agrokor was lying in its financial statements, that would be a solid argument for the investigators that criminal offences have been committed.
The question would be who participated in them and what financial consequences have been created. However, it should be borne in mind that the prosecution has also hired its financial experts who, in parallel with PwC, are doing their own audit. It is not known how far they have gone and what conclusions they might have reached.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
