Thomas Hansa

Croatian and Austrian experts in combating money laundering have been collaborating in Croatia since June of 2006. Some 40 Austrian experts have been in Croatia since then, passing their expertise on to their Croatian colleagues, and the cooperation will continue to the end of this year. They are coming to Croatia in the frame of the CARDS program's twinning project, spearheaded by Austrian Thomas Hansa. This 40-year-old native of Graz worked at the Austrian finance ministry before joining this project, before that at the Fraud Prevention Department, and prior to that as a customs inspector. He is an expert in customs legislation and has specialised in combating money laundering. He took part three years ago in an integrated border project in Croatia.

And while formally only the coordinator of this twinning project, Hansa is in Croatia considered to be the key figure responsible for the progress made in processing complex cases of the embezzlement of state funds earmarked for weapons procurement in Croatia, transferred by war profiteers to foreign banks, mostly Austrian ones. Croatia in its choice of twinning partner has the right to decide with which country and in what area it wishes to collaborate. Chief State Attorney Mladen Bajic insisted that the twinning partner for combating money laundering be Austria, precisely because war profiteers made use, for the most part, of Austrian banks in the misappropriation of money allocated for procuring arms for Croatia.

In an interview for Nacional at the end of last week Thomas Hansa presented his thoughts concerning the affair in which Vladimir Zagorec has recently become embroiled, spoke of how he came into his current post, what exactly it is he is doing in Croatia, and what are the chief benefits of the project he stands at the helm of.

NACIONAL: How did you become the chief coordinator of this twinning project between Croatia and Austria?
- I had already been in Croatia several times as a consultant on other projects, where I had already had contact with officials from various Croatian ministries. I had worked on similar projects in other countries, and prior to that had been involved in assignments closely related to the issues pertinent to this project. I also gained some of the expertise needed for this assignment in Hungary. That is why the Austrian officials from the interior affairs ministry, and also those from other national institutions, who discussed the issue, decided that I was the right person for the post. I hope to share my expertise with my colleagues in Croatia.

NACIONAL: What was your post in Austria prior to taking on this assignment in Croatia?
- I was the head of the customs guard in Styria, a federal state of which Graz is the capital city. It is a kind of a police unit at customs. I was at that post for the past six years. I had to cooperate well with my colleagues in Vienna and in other federal states, but also with European institutions involved in combating smuggling, fraud and money laundering. I was at that post when Slovenia joined the European Union and had an opportunity to see first hand the kinds of problems transition countries face when entering the EU, especially when it comes to various kinds of smuggling and money laundering. I took part in processing several cases of money laundering along with my colleagues in Austria.

NACIONAL: What were you involved in before joining the customs guard in Styria?
- I was an investigator in various cases of combating drug smuggling and organised crime related to customs. I also came across Croatians involved in smuggling several times in these operations. But that is the way it is with smuggling – people of various nationalities are involved in it. So I came into contact with Croatians in this way too.

NACIONAL: Does the collaboration between Austria and Croatia in preventing money laundering also cover the "diamonds affair" involving Vladimir Zagorec? How well informed are you concerning this case?
- I know of the case, but am responsible only for the work on the twinning project related to the prevention and combating of money laundering. This is a demanding project that encompasses many assignments that need to be carried out. As a result of these duties I am not familiar with the details of the affair you are referring to.

NACIONAL: Has your presence in Croatia over the past few months nevertheless significantly facilitated the communication between the competent Croatian institutions and their Austrian colleagues in connection with the case of Vladimir Zagorec?
- I believe that to be so. This project has in any event contributed to better international cooperation between Austria and Croatia. Austrian and Croatian experts have over these past months become very well acquainted with one another and certainly understand each other better. The discussion at these meetings does not, of course, revolve only around the project, but also touches on concrete things related to work, and also on private affairs. All of this creates a good atmosphere. When people associate, communication is much easier. Thanks to this project, Croatians certainly have a better understanding of how the Austrian system functions, and the Austrians too know more about how it works in Croatia.

NACIONAL: What is your opinion of the case involving Vladimir Zagorec? You have surely discussed it with your Croatian colleagues, if not previously, then certainly over the past few days, when the case also became interesting to the Austrian public?
- My duties are not of a nature that I would have to discuss that issue. That is why I cannot comment the case. I have many other duties that take up all of the work time available to me. But that does not mean that the case does not interest me, even though I have nothing in particular to say about it. The case is developing and we shall see what will come out of it. I think that the two sides are cooperating well and that good results will be achieved with time.

NACIONAL: The issue of the embezzlement and laundering of money earmarked for the arming of Croatia in the Homeland War, that is to say its transfer to international banks, including those in Austria, is once again in the Croatian spotlight. What do Croatian institutions have to do so that the Austrian authorities can provide international legal assistance and show them the balances of bank accounts suspected of having embezzled funds on them?
- In Austria there is a procedure that precedes the opening of bank accounts. Banks write reports on suspect bank transactions. When a bank is not sure that the money is clean, it sends the information to the financial intelligence unit at the finance ministry. It usually requests of it that the money be blocked temporarily, until its origin is ascertained. The blockade often lasts only a few hours, but sometimes longer.

NACIONAL: What is a suspect bank transaction?
- A transaction for which the bank is not sure where the money originated.

NACIONAL: What conditions does the Croatian side need to meet for the Austrian authorities to open a bank account?
- Very specialised experts in the financial intelligence unit or at the money laundering department in Austria are competent in these cases and they will be able to say what preconditions must be met.

NACIONAL: What is the substance of the twinning project you lead?
- I have been in Croatia for months now as the leader, coordinator and organiser of the Preventing and Combating Money Laundering project. The twinning partners are the Croatian justice ministry and the Austrian Agency for European Integration and Economic Development. The project was launched in June of 2006 and will last a total of 18 months, right up to December of this year. The project aims to secure institutional support for the competent institutions, responsible in Croatia for addressing money laundering issues – these are the justice, finance and interior affairs ministries and the State Attorney's Office. This collaboration should strengthen Croatian institutions in the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorism. The project deals with money laundering and the financing of terrorism, and is made up of four main components. The first is managing capacities, i.e. developing cooperation and the exchange of information between ministries and institutions responsible for the area in question. The second component covers the optimisation of treating money laundering and an overview of the legal framework. The third covers work on improving international cooperation and working together with Interpol, Europol, OLAF (European Anti-Fraud Office) and other institutions, and the fourth in an overview of and the setting up of an IT system for combating money laundering.

NACIONAL: What kind of situation did you find in that area in coming to Croatia at the start of the project? Has there been any improvement?
- The first benefits of the project are already visible. The governor of the Croatian National Bank and the ministers of finance, interior affairs and justice met two weeks ago at the State Attorney's Office to sign an agreement on cooperation and the organisation of a working group that is to work on implementing the project assignments that have been set out. Present at the meeting along with them and Chief State Attorney Mladen Bajic were the heads of the SOA (Central Intelligence Agency) and HANFA (Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency), Tomislav Karamarko and Ante Samodol. This is a good sign for Croatia. In the part of the project completed so far it is evident that the Croatian side has approached it very ambitiously with the aim of improving an already good existing system for the prevention of money laundering.

NACIONAL: How many international experts are there participating in this project?
- The project has pooled some 40 Austrian experts from all Austrian institutions involved in the area. These experts come mostly from the Austrian police, Interpol, the finance ministry... They have all come to Croatia in order to assist it in meeting some standards already stipulated by the rules of the European Commission, which Croatia must meet on its way to EU membership.

NACIONAL: Can Croatia even be compared to developed European countries in the prevention of money laundering? What kind of perception of the problem is there is the Austrian public?
- Money laundering is not the problem of one country only, and therefore not just of Austria. This is an international problem. Working on the project we saw that Croatia is developing very well in this area. In comparison with the Austrian system for preventing money laundering, the Croatian system is in some areas even better developed. That is why I always reiterate that we have not come in this project only to teach, but also to learn from the Croatian side, which in some cases can also offer a lot of help to its Austrian colleagues. International money laundering is always changing and improving its methods, and some exotic island is almost always involved in these activities. That is why it is very good that international cooperation is developing in this field. I am happy that Austria and Croatia have an excellent cooperation in this regard. As we are cooperating very closely on this project, it guarantees better prevention and combating of this kind of crime in the future.

NACIONAL: What is your impression of Croatian experts for the prevention of money laundering?
- They all left a very good impression. They want to get to know something new and are quick to pick up on advice and acquire new knowledge. The cooperation is excellent. Besides this, we also cooperate in the area of management processes, where some improvements in teamwork are also visible.

NACIONAL: Did any of them complain to you that there was no political will to open serious affairs related to money laundering in Croatia?
- There were no complaints of that kind. Political debate is not part of our cooperation. In our focus is the advancement of inter-institutional cooperation in Croatia, and here too the results are visible. Two cases of money laundering have already been processed in Croatia thanks to this project. One in the Osijek area, and the other in the Split area. They were able to reconstruct the money laundering thanks above all to the new knowledge they have gained during the project. This best demonstrates that we are doing good work and that the fruits of our cooperation are already evident.