Agrokor’s former boss shares his thoughts on Lex Agrokor, again.
Ivica Todorić takes to his blog on the 20th of December, 2017, this time discussing his feelings on the Lex Agrokor law being not only written by the Deputy PM, Agrokor’s extraordinary commissioner and their partners, but it also being a private deal in order to misappropriate large amounts of company money.
As usual, we bring you the former Agrokor majority owner’s latest blog post translated into English in full below:
”Lex Agrokor was written by Martina Dalić, Ante Ramljak and Boris Šavorić, and with their partners, they’re in control of Agrokor today, which was hijacked owing to the passing of that law. Lex [Agrokor] is undoubtedly a private deal that has been organised, and through the highest of state institutions, conducted by Martina Dalić. In their criminal activities, they’re hiding behind Lex [Agrokor]’s legal provisions and the audit opinion on the financial statements (of the company under the management of) the extraordinary administration.
Lex [Agrokor] is deeply unconstitutional and allows for the direct interference of executive authorities (the Government of the Republic of Croatia) in private ownership, with the exclusion of adequate judicial control of such procedures, which is evident from the following:
– By allowing the procedure of authority over all the bodies of the company to [fall into the hands of] the extraordinary commissioner (he’s now presenting the board, the supervisory board and the general assembly);
– The Government of the Republic of Croatia selects the person to be the extraordinary commissioner exclusively, the court only appoints him technically on the proposal of the Government without any possibility of participation in the election;
– The extraordinary commissioner makes all decisions alone (without the involvement of a court) with the consent of the trustee council or the temporary trustee council whose members are elected by the extraordinary commissioner; with their consent, the extraordinary commissioner makes payments to debtors according to their choice, even their old debts; and takes up roll up loans, i.e, he [the extraordinary commissioner] reduces the company’s assets and pays fees to advisors, which he himself chooses (with prior consultation with the Ministry);
– There is no assembly of creditors with which all creditors would have the right to vote and decide on the course of the proceedings; creditors realise their rights exclusively through members of the trust council (only nine members) whose election is ultimately non-transparent;
– The process is also open to affiliated companies in which a group of systematic significance holds more than 25% of the share, even though these companies are neither over-indebted nor insolvent; the assets of these companies are settled by creditors and other companies over which proceedings are opened, and the holders of the remaining 75% of the shares remain without their shares – their ownership.
Agrokor’s Extraordinary Administration has not yet explained all the parts of the financial statements to which the auditor refused to give an opinion, indicating the conscious perpertration of criminal offenses in order to avoid the law and allow for unforeseen financial benefit to Ramljak’s selected players.
In its opinion on the financial statements of Agrokor’s extraordinary administration, PWC refused to confirm the amount of Agrokor’s total losses, in the amount of 18 billion kuna, and negative capital in the amount of 14.5 billion kuna.
If the auditor refused to confirm the stated loss, how did the extraordinary administration manage to arrive to these losses? It’s possible that this loss is entirely fictitious and that Agrokor’s financial statements from 2016 don’t actually exist, which is evident from the enormous reservations the auditor has stated in its opinion. If the auditor refused to confirm the said loss, then, as the extraordinary administration intends to do, Agrokor will expand and actually be given to its creditors. Upon what will the extraordinary administration base the allegations that Agrokor has no value when proposing a settlement, in which the real owner of Agrokor is left without ownership.
I hope that the Extraordinary Administration is aware of the damages that would arise through this kind of settlement agreement, for which the Government of the Republic of Croatia would be directly responsible. Throughout the process of the implementation of Lex Agrokor, they’ve been intimidating with the private financial interests of individuals and groups who misappropriate millions of euros each day from Agrokor and transfer it overseas.
It’s completely incomprehensible that the government is also participating in this criminal activity. The government’s inaction opens up not only suspicion, but also confirms the theory that individuals from the executive authorities are deeply aware of the crimes that Ramljak is carrying out daily, and they’re actively participating in them. Thus, by analysing Lex [Agrokor] itself, it’s undoubtedly evident that its authors, selected by Minister [Martina] Dalić, have no authority held over them by Croatian laws or courts.
The draft resolution has been drawn up by the extraordinary commissioner with the trustee’s council (without a court and a shareholder, i.e, an owner).
In all of this, the owner of the company (majority shareholder) according to Lex [Agrokor] has no legal mechanisms to protect his rights and prevent the loss of his company’s assets, while the extraordinary commissioner is essentially consulted with by the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the court is only a parade without any real powers in the procedure.
From the whole text, it’s undeniable that the main goal of the authors [of Lex Agrokor] was to overcome the court as well as all the other shareholders in Agrokor. The aim was to write a law in which the writers would decide (everything) themselves, protected by the Lex [Agrokor] law.”
Ivica Todorić’s blog post translated in full from ivicatodoric.hr
