Police have been searching the flat of Ivan Mravak, former management board chairman of the state-owned power supply company HEP, since morning, his attorney Ante Madunic said on Friday, but could not say what his client was suspected of or if he had been arrested.
Interior Ministry spokesman Krunoslav Borovec told Hina the flat search was under way, but would not say if Mravak had been arrested and how many people the police were investigating.
"Searches are under way and there have been arrests, but we will inform the public when the time comes," he said.
A source close to the investigation said on condition of anonymity that Mravak, 56, was suspected of illegally selling electricity and defrauding HEP of some HRK 100 million (EUR 1 = HRK 7.25).
The source added that police were investigating a number of persons and that the probe was linked to the Sibenik-based light metal company TLM.
According to the media, Mravak is suspected of harmful contracts and losses caused in 2007 and 2008, when HEP bought electricity at international tenders at the highest prices, only to sell it at considerably lower prices to TLM, which gave it to the Aluminij company from Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The print media claim HEP was defrauded of HRK 84 million.
Since last September, Mravak and four other HEP executives have been under suspicion of abuse of office and defrauding HEP of nearly HRK 700,000 by enabling Rade Buljubasic, a returnee from Australia, to receive an HEP employee salary for four years, although he was not working at HEP but at the Zagreb headquarters of the HDZ, the ruling Croatian Democratic Union party.
Mravak was dismissed from HEP at the government's proposal and has not been placed in custody.
