A preliminary investigation into the bribing of Croatian government officials by German automaker Daimler in a 2003 purchase of fire trucks is still under way and Croatia's anti-corruption office USKOK is cooperating with US authorities, USKOK said on Monday but would neither confirm nor refute some Croatian media's allegations that the entire case file from US investigators is available to Croatian bodies.
"Cooperation with American authorities is very good," USKOK spokesman Vuk Djuricic told Hina, declining to reveal more about the cooperation or the stage of which USKOK's preliminary investigation into the Daimler graft case.
Some Croatian media said today that the entire US file, with the names of persons in Croatia who sought and received bribes for the purchase of Daimler fire trucks, was at the disposal of Croatian bodies.
Earlier this month, Daimler plea-bargained with the prosecution at the federal court in Washington, admitting to bribing government officials in 22 countries as contracts were signed, including Croatia, where some EUR 4.7 million was allegedly paid in bribes between 2002 and January 2008 in connection with a EUR 85 million purchase of 210 fire trucks for the Interior Ministry in 2003.
The US court's documents do not state the names or ranks of those implicated in Croatia, stating only that they were government officials.
According to those documents, the payments were made via the IM Metal company from Ozalj, Croatia in the amount of some EUR 3.02 million, and via the US companies Biotop and MRC from Delaware and Wyoming in the amount of EUR 1,673,349.
The deal with Dailmer was signed by then Prime Minister Ivica Racan and the then ministers of the economy, finance and the interior -- Ljubo Jurcic, Mato Crkvenac and Sime Lucin. Racan is dead, while the other three claim they had not taken any bribes and that no one had offered them.
