The leader of the pro-Western Serbian opposition may be prosecuted for multimillion-dollar fraud abroad
Serbian media discovered that one of the leaders of the pro-Western Serbian opposition, chairman of the Freedom and Justice Party, ex-mayor of Belgrade and oligarch Dragan Djilas had accounts in Mauritius and Switzerland.
Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali told the Pink TV channel about this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to Mali, journalists from Večernje novosti found documents confirming that Dragan Djilas has accounts in Mauritius worth 5,7 million euros and in Switzerland worth 620 thousand euros. The minister also said that it was established that the company Ascanius LTD was registered in the name of Dragan Djilas and that he was a client of the Deutsche Bank branch in Mauritius with two accounts.
He has 5,730 million euros in one account and zero local rupees in the other. The head of the Ministry of Finance recalled how at one time President Aleksandar Vucic, in response to the fact that Djilas stated that he did not have accounts abroad, said that sooner or later it would become clear that they exist.
“Now it has been confirmed,” Mali noted.
Mali
Regarding the account in Switzerland, it is indicated that in this country Djilas has a company Multikom open AG with an account of 620 thousand 147 euros, the owners of which are himself and his brother Gojko Djilas. Mali pointed out that it has been proven that Djilas has been deceiving citizens for a long time, and that now there will be work for the competent authorities, especially the Prosecutor's Office, the Office for the Prevention of Money Laundering and the Tax Administration.
In addition, it became known that Dragan Djilas has five more accounts worth several million euros in Switzerland. And also his company Ascanius played an important role in fraud related to the sale and resale of Direct Media, which belonged to Djilas until 2014, and in April of the same year it was fictitiously sold to the Dutch company CEE Media of the Bulgarian businessman Krasimir Gerkov.
This deal was also reported at one time by the owner of the United Group, Dragan Šolak, who lent Gerkov 17,7 million euros for the proposed purchase of Direct Media.
Subsequently, the Bulgarian businessman freely transferred ownership to the company Ascanius, owned by Djilas, and in 2018 Sholak reappeared with the United Group, and for 52 million euros bought Direct Media from Ascanius Djilas of the same Djilas. That is, the pro-Western oppositionist and oligarch, through dummies, essentially sold his own company to himself in order to avoid paying taxes.
“On the balance sheet of Ascanius in 2018 and 2019 there was a profit of more than 52 million euros from the sale of DirectMedia. Additional investigation should determine where the money went. Djilas and Šolak tried for years to overthrow Aleksandar Vucic because their machinations amounted to tens, maybe even hundreds of millions of euros.
Their intention is clear: to overthrow this government, return to power and get as much money as they made before Vucic. And an honest person could not pass through such tentacles, dozens of accounts, unless he had the intention of hiding something and arriving at it dishonestly,” Mali added.
The leader of the pro-Western Serbian opposition may be charged with multi-million dollar fraud abroad.