Former prime minister Ivo Sanader has been mentioned for months in connection with several corruption scandals, and according to media reports, witnesses and suspects have directly accused him of siphoning money from public companies through the privately-owned marketing firm Fimi Media, signing contracts for the sale of electricity below market prices to the Sibenik-based light metal factory TLM, and siphoning money from the state power company HEP.
The Fimi Media scandal broke when former board member of the Croatia Osiguranje insurance company Damir Mihanovic told media early this year that, at several meetings in the Cabinet office in 2007, Sanader had recommended to the chief executive officers of about 20 public companies to start making deals with Fimi Media, owned by Nevenka Jurak.
Just like Sanader, Jurak had initially dismissed the accusations, but after several months in custody she told investigators from the national anti-corruption agency USKOK that she had been receiving money from public companies and giving it to her friend, customs chief Mladen Barisic, who allegedly confirmed her statement.
Barisic, in his statements to USKOK, mostly mentioned Sanader and HEP's former CEO Ivan Mravak. According to media reports, Barisic brought to Sanader tens of millions of kuna in cash, which the former prime minister apparently used to pay foreign lobbyists and his party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), particularly at election time.
Darko Beuk, a board member of the Hrvatske Sume forest management company, also talked to investigators about the siphoning of public funds through Fimi Media. He was released from Zagreb's Remetinec prison only a day before Barisic was placed in custody.
According to unofficial sources, USKOK investigators initially received the greatest help from Croatian Postal Bank director Josip Protega and Mravak, who were allegedly exempt from criminal prosecution in exchange for information.
The Mravak-Sanader connection was mentioned in all cases relating to the former HEP CEO, including the fictitious employment in HEP of one Rade Buljubasic, who actually worked in the HDZ's head office, and the sale of electricity to the TLM factory below market prices, whereby HEP was defrauded of 600 million kuna.
Mravak reportedly told investigators that it was Sanader who had ordered him to sign the contracts that were unfavourable to HEP, and media also speculated that most of the bribes Mravak demanded from the manager of the Monting PIM firm should have ended up in Sanader's pocket. After recommending Monting PIM to offer a five per cent lower price at a tender, Mravak promised to ensure them another 40 million kuna through an annex to the contract, provided they paid him two million euros. Petar Cubelic, manager of HEP's Production department, is suspected in this case together with Mravak.
However, before the annex was signed, Mravak was relieved as HEP CEO over the scandals, and USKOK has meanwhile begun another investigation suspecting him of giving a loan of 15 million kuna to companies within the DIOKI concern without the approval of the HEP board.
Sanader's name was also mentioned in investigations into irregularities in the Brodosplit shipyard, siphoning of funds from the Hrvatske Autoceste motorway company through the Skladgradnja firm, owned by the Zuzul brothers, and a few other cases that have not been corroborated by witness statements or other hard evidence.
