Published in Nacional number 770, 2010-08-17

Autor: Plamenko Cvitić

Incriminated former Prime Minister's American dream

Why is Sanader on the run again

Nacional analyses the possible motives for the sudden departure of Ivo Sanader to the United States, including the obvious fear of a possible arrest, reveals what he has been doing since his resignation and how he has laid the groundwork for life in America

Ivo Sanader — the former Prime Minister showed up at Los Angeles International Airport a day ahead of the arrest of Nevenka Jurak, on Sunday, 8 August, around 2 pm Pacific TimeIvo Sanader — the former Prime Minister showed up at Los Angeles International Airport a day ahead of the arrest of Nevenka Jurak, on Sunday, 8 August, around 2 pm Pacific TimeWhile Nevenka Jurak, the owner of the Fimi-media company, spent the last evening of her summer vacation and freedom in Primosten last Sunday, former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, his wife Mirjana and daughters Bruna and Petra were in the air, en route for Los Angeles. In domestic political circles there have been claims in recent days that Ivo Sanader has fled the homeland, where the judiciary is increasingly tightening the noose around him, and that he has no intention of coming back in the near future. In support of this theory is information that Sanader was abroad frequently these past months, while Croatia has in the meantime been the scene of ever-greater corruption scandals in connection to which his name is very discretely cited. Even his surprise trip to Los Angeles - some claim - is the result of information someone provided to Sanader that the police and USKOK (The Bureau for the Prevention of Corruption and Organized Crime) were preparing to arrest Nevenka Jurak, which stirred him to, at least for a while, get as far as he could from Croatian investigators, police and Zagreb's Remetinec prison.


Every since his flight from the duties of Prime Minister in July of last year, Ivo Sanader has significantly reduced the number of times he appears in public, and has kept his travels abroad, and that which interests many Croatians - what has the former prime minister been up to since stepping down from power - in complete secrecy. The Croatian public at large learned only in late September of last year that Sanader had travelled to New York to participate in the Creative Leadership Summit, an annual affair organised by the eccentric and wealthy Canadian Louise Blouin. After the trip, Sanader indicated that Louise Blouin had engaged his services, but it is clear today that the story does not have, and perhaps never did have, any grounds whatsoever.

In early November of last year, Sanader was in Essen, Germany, where he met with the heads of the German media corporation WAZ, and allegedly also held a meeting in the same city with the heads of the German energy giant RWE. From that date until a few days ago the Croatian public learned nothing of the travels abroad of their former prime minister - neither where he had travelled to, and even less what he had been up to on those trips. According to some sources, Sanader planned to work as a consultant and lobbyist not long after his resignation, but the plan has, by all accounts, come to naught in the meantime - many foreigners have grasped that, instead of opening doors for their businesses in Croatia, the name of Ivo Sanader can in fact cause much more damage than benefit. At the same time his time in office, and his person, have become so linked with corruption and crime that it is truly difficult to imagine what international company would wish to tarnish their image by any association with him. Sanader has, however, as Nacional's sources point out, travelled a lot these past eight months.

He spent two weeks of every month abroad, most often in the United States, one week in his native Split, and the remaining seven days in Zagreb. His very frequent departures for the United States have to date usually been associated with the fact that his eldest daughter, Petra, has spent the last two years studying acting in New York. But, Ivo Sanader had allegedly been working out a plan to perhaps one day move permanently to the United States even before leaving the post of prime minister. In support of this theory are the claims made by a well-informed Nacional diplomatic source, which points out that during his term in office Sanader paid particular attention to the appointments of diplomatic staff in our embassy and consulates in America. Their mission was to obediently follow all of Sanader's directives, something former Croatian Ambassador Neven Jurica led the way in.

Some of them were to discourage Croatian reporters who wanted in recent years, for example, to investigate where and under what conditions the prime minister's daughter was studying. That task, as Nacional's sources say, fell to the Croatian consul in New York, Marijan Gubic. And while he can hardly speak Croatian, Gubic was for years deemed to be a trusted staff pick of former Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul, and had, in the meantime, evidently also gained Sanader's trust, as the former prime minister strongly insisted on his appointment to the consulate in New York by then Croatian President Stjepan Mesic. Sanader's influence did not stop here, and he had a special mission for former Vjesnik daily journalist Branka Somen, whom he installed as consul with the mission of assisting the acting ambitions of Petra Sanader and to try, however bizarre it might sound, to launch her career - in Hollywood. And while she lacks the necessary educational qualifications, Branka Somen was appointed a consul at the Croatian consulate in Los Angeles in the summer of 2007, and her chief assignment was, with the help of producer Branko Lustig, to bring the desires and dreams of Petra Sanader and her parents to fruition - enrolling her into a prestigious acting school leading to a movie role. But it appears that Consul Somen was of no great benefit in this regard and in the summer of 2008 Petra Sanader and her boyfriend Andrej Dojkic travelled to New York where she signed up for acting courses at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute.

PETRA SANADER with her boyfriend, actor Andrej Dojkic — she moved to the USA two years ago to pursue an acting careerPETRA SANADER with her boyfriend, actor Andrej Dojkic — she moved to the USA two years ago to pursue an acting careerAn interesting detail in regard to this year's US itinerary for the Sanader family could be the fact that the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute actually operates from two locations - the first is in New York, where most young actors do a year or two of basic acting training, and the second is in Los Angeles, i.e. on Santa Monica Boulevard, in the heart of West Hollywood. There the actors continue their training, but the proximity of the hub of the movie industry offers them a window to a serious start in the movie business. And while there is no official confirmation, there has been a rumour circulating among Croatian-Americans for some time now that Ivo Sanader had purchased a luxurious apartment in one of the most elite quarters of New York a few months ago. The apartment is allegedly in the Zeckendorf Towers, located at One Irving Place near New York's Union Square, and the price of the apartments bears witness to the elite nature of the location - on the average one room costs a million dollars.

The members of the Sanader family have been seen frequently near the location in the past months, which is for many proof enough that the former prime minister has in fact purchased some real estate there. Besides the possible acquisition of an apartment in New York, Ivo Sanader has inquired into some other real estate during his frequent stays in the US, and there were reports among Croatian-Americans that the former Croatian prime minister intended to buy a family house somewhere in America, and that he had allegedly personally toured some of the houses he is interested in. If he has in fact already purchased an apartment in New York, it sounds very logical that he would want to buy another property, such as a family home, in an entirely different part of the United States.

According to Nacional's sources, the wishes of his daughter Petra, who has for years dreamed of an acting career in Hollywood, could prove crucial to his decision on a possible long-term stay in California. If Ivo Sanader were in fact to decide to move to the United States and start a new life there it would not in fact pose much of a problem. With a tourist visa he could, for a start, stay there for a maximum of six months. In the meantime he could start the procedure for a permanent residence permit, i.e. a "green card." In his case, the simplest way to apply for a green card would be on the basis of investment. According to US law, namely, the right to residence in the United States can relatively easily be obtained by foreigners if they can prove that they have at least a million US dollars, and are willing to invest them in the territory of the USA, i.e. by creating a business and employing at least ten people.

A million dollars, i.e. just a little over five million kuna, should really not be a problem for the former Croatian prime minister - even if the abundant speculation on his massive fortune, accrued through a number of corruption schemes, is not true, Ivo Sanader is not an impoverished man. According to his own declaration of assets, along with movable assets of 1.5 million kuna, he has 105 thousand euro in foreign currency deposits, and has an apartment in Split he could sell. And while he has never listed it in his declaration of assets, judging by the statements made by Luka Bebic, Sanader owns land on the island of Brac. If he were to sell the real estate he owns and add that money to the rest of his assets, Sanader would probably already exceed four million kuna, and that would not even include the value of the massive four-storey building at No. 21 Kozarceva Street in Zagreb. In short, the Sanader family could, using only their declared assets, easily pool the required five million kuna for an "American dream." This epilogue to the story of Ivo Sanader sounds very logical if one takes into consideration his position in Croatia - as time wears on any kind of political comeback seems less and less probable, and he has allegedly himself grasped that, colloquially speaking, he is politically "dead" in Croatia. Likewise, if he remains in Croatia, he will be hard pressed to ever sink into anonymity - both the media and the public at large will always keep a watchful eye on his whereabouts, what he is doing, and with whom.

The third reason is perhaps the most compelling. There are a growing number of criminal scandals in connection with which his name is mentioned, and there is a very high level of certainty that he could very soon be formally named as a suspect in some investigations. That is the case in the current Fimi-media scandal, and in the parallel investigation USKOK is leading against Mladen Barisic, the director of the Customs Administration. Already mid way through last week the word among reporters was that USKOK and the police were planning the arrests of Nevenka Jurak and other actors in the Fimi-media scandal for the end of August. The police operation was, however, allegedly fast-tracked after Ivo Sanader somehow found out about the plan and fled Croatia, practically overnight, and investigators suspected that Nevenka Jurak might try to do the same, and arrested her the following morning in her apartment in Primosten.

Branka Somen was appointed consul in Los Angeles in 2007, and it was her task to assist Petra Sanader in achieving her ambitions as an actressBranka Somen was appointed consul in Los Angeles in 2007, and it was her task to assist Petra Sanader in achieving her ambitions as an actressA few days ago, Nacional received confirmation that the investigation into the notorious 800 thousand German marks Sanader was alleged to have received from Miroslav Kutle in 1998 has been re-opened, and many believe that he is also connected to the Hypo bank scandal in Austria. Besides these scandals, all directly linked to him, one ought not to forget the case of Croatian Motorways Ltd, the Croatian electric power authority (HEP), construction company Skladgradnje, food producer Podravka, the sale of INA to MOL and some other cases, in which some of the defendants could very likely incriminate the former prime minister. As a result it does not sound at all implausible that Ivo Sanader, after taking a jaunt the yacht Malo Vitra (Little Wind), has decided to catch a little more wind and blow - all the way to the West Coast.

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