GORAN VUKASOVIC – Austrian investigators discovered that the CEO of Brodosplit is one of the owners of a secret account in AustriaThe Brodosplit affair is coming to a close, thanks primarily to the Austrian police and investigation bodies that submitted their report to Zagreb in mid December 2006 regarding money laundering in the Split shipyard Brodosplit via the bank account of Zagreb businessman Drago Macek.

In its report dated 15 December 2006, the Austrian police reveals the owners and beneficiaries of the three accounts into which Drago Macek transferred $ 4million of a total $6 million: Brodosplit CEO Goran Vukasovic, Director of the Production and Sales Division Ante Luetic and former Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board and HDZ Organization Secretary Sinisa Poljak, also a long-time personal friend of Premier Sanader. This $6 million is the amount for which the Split shipyard Brodosplit was damaged with the signing of the unfavourable Contract and Side Letters with the German shipping company “Vessels” on 15 July 2006. As such, the police, State Prosecutor’s Office and its anti-corruption team, headed up by Lazo Pajic, Deputy State Prosecutor, had complete information as to the account owners more than one month ago. A reliable source confirmed for Nacional that “It is absolutely certain that Premier Sanader also received this information. However, the information received from Austria has not answered the question of the fourth participant in this transaction, whom is rightfully thought to be a very influential or highly ranked official in Croatia.”

Now it is necessary to find the answer as to whether this money was intended for those who received it in their account or whether this was just a stopover for their political protectors, sponsors or mentors. As everyone, including the Premier, openly requested that this investigation be completed as soon as possible and its results made public, the question remains as to why they are now keeping the results quiet, why the name of the “fourth man” is being hidden and why criminal charges have not been laid. There can be only one answer to that question – someone is protecting someone else.

Even back in March 2006, the Austrians requested the assistance and co-operation of the Croatian Interior Ministry with regards to the suspicious $4m transaction wired to Macek’s inactive account in an Austrian bank from Cypress. However, the Croatian organs tried to keep that request quiet and to sweep the Brodosplit affair under the rug, but to no avail. The affair reached the light of day in April, only one month later, when Nacional revealed an anonymous criminal charge and the damaging contracts to build tankers in the Split shipyard signed with the Germany company Vessels. And while the Austrians submitted precious information on their investigation into the Brodosplit affair, the Split police are doing all they can to save the top officials of the Brodosplit Management and Supervisory Board by rerouting the investigation in the direction of Economy Minister Damir Polancec and MP Miomir Zuzul.

MINISTAR OBSERVER – One of the key issues in the Brodosplit affair is why Police Minister Ivica Kirin has done nothing with respect to the work of the Split policeMeanwhile, the lack of action by the Croatian investigative organs suits the Split police just fine, as its Economic Crime Division, headed up by Ivan Lozic and Ante Gudelj, is obstructing the investigation, protecting Drago Macek and the top officials in Brodosplit and covering up their tracks. They are doing this by conducting an investigation into the former top officials in Brodosplit—Milan Senjanovic, Predrag Cudina, Frano Donadini, Srdan Kovac and Goran Cvitanic—due to their affairs with another partner of the Split shipyard, the Greek shipping company Karnessis. As was learned later, this fictitious investigation was needed by the Split police in order to pull Damir Polancec and Miomir Zuzul into the story.

Attempts have been made to implicate these two officials in the Brodosplit affair since October 2006, when police inspector Ivan Lozic, in cooperation with Ante Gudelj, Snjezana Zupanovic and Marica Kusta, the investigators who were Lozic’s “right hand” in the Brodosplit investigation, submitted a 40 page special report against the former leaders of Brodosplit to the Split State Prosecutor’s Office.

In the special report, Lozic accused the former officials of Brodosplit of conducting several criminal acts in their affairs with the Greek shipping company. Lozic accused the group of damaging Brodosplit in the amount of HRK 259,597,327 in the period from 2001 to 2005. Lozic’s primary objective was to implicate Miomir Zuzul. One truly suitable circumstance to this effect is the fact that for years, Brodosplit was working together with the company Sklad-gradnja, led by Zuzul’s cousins, Jozo and Slaven Zuzul. The Zuzul brothers, as partners to the shipyards in Split and Trogir, employ about 800 workers in their anti-corrosion protection business, and this seemed to Lozic to be the perfect place to find a “connection” with Miomir Zuzul. Lozic tried to prove that if there were transfers and money laundering, then this was not carried out by Macek, Vukasovic and the others, but by Miomir Zuzul through his cousin’s accounts.

IVAN LOZIC, head of the Economic Crime Division and Ivan Mercep, head of the Split Police (third from the left), are trying persistently to protect the key people in the Brodosplit Management and Supervisory BoardsHowever, the investigation, particularly the findings of the Austrian police, that Jozo and Slaven Zuzul have nothing to do with the criminal activities in Brodosplit and the $6m in laundered money from the Vessels contract. However, in recent months, Lozic has concocted a series of uncomfortable situations for the Zuzuls and Sklad-gradnje by opening an unofficial investigation, calling the brothers in for questioning, requesting insight into official documentation, all in an attempt to find fictitious foreign accounts. All aimed at showing that “something is there” to the Police Ministry and the State Prosecutor’s Office, to prove that their special report makes sense and that they are on the tracks of secret foreign accounts.

Meanwhile, while they were unsuccessfully trying to create an atmosphere of suspicion in the police and state attorney’s office that Miomir, Jozo and Slaven Zuzul are involved in the Brodosplit affair, Ivan Lozic, Ivan Mercep and Ante Gudelj were trying to ensure that this information reached their political like-thinkers Ivic Pasalic, Ljubo Cesic Rojs and the political partiers rallying around Pasalic’s Croatian Bloc. It is from these ranks that “reliable” information has leaked in recent months that Miomir Zuzul is involved in the Brodosplit affair, while this attack on Zuzul is also directly aimed at Premier Sanader, who is ultimately the intended victim of the entire affair.

It is a fact that with their special report, Lozic and company became involved in protecting the current management of Brodosplit, Drago Macek and Sinisa Poljak, and that since September, they have been involved in a political showdown aimed at covering up the true crimes committed and to show that the previous management had participated in scandalously harmful contracts. As such, on 9 September 2006, Ivan Lozic tried to coerce Zvonko Segvic into giving an untruthful statement during official questioning in the Split-Dalmatia Police HQ.

ANTE LUETIC – OWNER OF THE SECOND SECRET ACCOUNT in Austria is director of the Production and Sales Division in BrodosplitSegvic, a member of the Brodosplit Supervisory Board, was called in for questioning with members of Croatia’s Interpol office, at the time when the international investigation was becoming more intensive. Ivan Lozic met Segvic in the hallway, called him into his office and tried to convince him to give a statement saying that there were no harmful or criminal activities in the Brodosplit affairs with Vessels. As such, Lozic tried to directly influence Segvic into giving a false statement. Segvic was the only member of the Supervisory Board who in July 2005 did not vote in favour of the contract with Vessels. However, Lozic failed in his attempt.

By Lozic’s orders, a very interesting meeting was held in the office of Brodosplit’s CEO Goran Vukasovic on 9 November 2006. Two inspectors from the Economic Crime Division, Snjezana Zupanovic and Marica Kuseta, who have worked on the Brodosplit case since day one, held a joint meeting with CEO Vukasovic, directors Ante Luetic and Dubravko Klaric, liaison with Vessels Drago Macek and Vessels owner, Reichard Vessels. Instead of conducting the official discussion in the police headquarters, where numerous other people were invited for questioning, inspectors Zupanovic and Kuseta held a several-hour meeting at the Brodosplit premises, which is against the rules of conduct in police investigations. This was in fact a carefully orchestrated discussion between Vukasovic, Lozic and Macek, in order to harmonize their statements. This only indicates the attempt to obstruct the investigation and casts direct suspicion on the possibility of corruption for the staff of the Split Economic Crime Division.

When his investigation failed to provide results, Ivan Lozic tried instead to direct the investigation at Minister Damir Polancec. In his special report, Ivan Lozic directly accuses Damir Polancec of secretly meeting with Greek shipping magnate Spiros Karnessis. Lozic implies that Polancec also participated in giving alleged “favourable treatment” to Karnessis who left more than half a billion dollars in Split with the orders of ships over many years. On page 28 of his special report, Lozic states “We also established that Spiros Karnessis contacted the Croatian Government in a letter dated 31 August 2006, in which he requests that Economy Minister Polancec receive him. In his letter, Karnessis offers to take over the contracts concluded with the German shipping company Vessels. On 19 September 2006, the company drafted the Declaration of Co-operation with the company European Navigations, at the request of the Ministry of the Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship. In this Declaration, it is evident that the total losses of the company from its corporate relations with the companies of the Karnessis Group are in the amount of US$150m. We note that we have information that Polancec indeed received Karnessis on 19 September 2006.”

SINISA POLJAK – FORMER HDZ SECRETARY and Deputy Chairman of the Brodosplit Supervisory BoardIt is astounding that the special police report would even mention who the Economy Minister is meeting with and which world business people he receives. It is astounding that the Split police believe they have the right to track the movements and activities of the Minister, to send completely unfounded suspicions against both Polancec and Karnessis to the State Prosecutor’s Office and then to request that they regularly monitor the results of Polancec’s activities that reflect on Brodosplit. This virtually means that both Polancec and Karnessis have been included in Lozic’s investigation.

In December 2006, the Municipal State Prosecutor’s Office in Split rejected Lozic’s special report, declaring the findings against Senjanovic, Cudina and the others to be unfounded. The Split County Prosecutor’s Office agreed with this assessment, which it then forwarded to State Prosecutor Mladen Bajic. Obviously, it is still not time to expect that the case of abuse of position and money laundering will be resolved soon, as seen by both the legal and political circumstances of the case. The affair was not revealed by the prosecutors or the police, but by the press. Such a beginning, obviously seeks such an end. In the Croatian scene, nothing can improve without strong public pressure.