Series of articles on corruption and organized crime

Fight against Corruption: Spectacle on Camera, Silence in Courtrooms

Whilst highlighted as a priority by every government in recent years, fight against corruption boils down in practice to media announcements, arrests on camera and a large number of criminal charges brought, but without convictions in courts. Indictments are in short supply, verdicts are few and far between, and suspended sentences are the order of the day, shows the 6-month-long investigation carried out by CIJS.

02 June 2016

By Ivana Jeremić and Milica Stojanović

Early in the morning on the 24th of September, 2013, police officers interrupted Borislav Novaković’s physical therapy and took him to a police station. A whole month and a half earlier the media reported that Novaković, the Democratic Party caucus leader in Vojvodina’s parliament and former director of the Novi Sad Construction Bureau, would be arrested as‘a robber baron’ over mismanagement of construction land.

Another seven individuals were arrested on the same day, including Novi Sad businessmen Petar Matijević, the owner of meat processing company Matijević, and Vojislav Gajić, the general manager of Aleksandar gradnja construction company, respectively. This information soon became the news of the day, so much so that even Ivica Dačić, the then interior minister, bragged about it at one his press conferences.

Eight individuals in total were suspected of inflicting damage to Novi Sad and the Republic of Serbia. Novaković and his female associates from the City Construction Office were suspected of alleged abuse of public office and failure to prevent misappropriation of land, whereas the others were charged with abuse of authority in economy and tax evasion.

In the end, the case has never found its way to a courtroom. A little more than two years later, the investigation against all the suspected individuals was dropped as the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad abandoned further prosecution. In its reply to the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CIJS), the Prosecutor’s Office stated that there were no reasonable grounds for their prosecution as the suspicions were not substantiated.

The CIJS investigation shows that fight against corruption, although highlighted as a priority by every government in recent ten or so years, boils down in practice to media announcements and arrests on camera. These are followed through with a flurry of criminal charges, but indictments are then in short supply and guilty verdicts are few and far between. Even when a verdict is handed down, suspended sentences seem to be the order of the day. Petty corruption is more often prosecuted.

Over a six-month period, CIJS journalists were collecting data from judicial institutions in Serbia on the prosecution of ten corruption-related criminal offences from 2013 through to the end of 2015. A total of 6,179 individuals were reported to the police over these crimes. According to the data from prosecutors’ offices which provided information, almost three thousand individuals were charged.

Information collected from basic and higher courts showed that 1,861 sentences were handed down, though one should bear in mind that some individuals received two sentences, e.g. a suspended sentence and a fine, so that the total number of convicted persons was about 1,500. Of the total tally, the majority were suspended sentences – 1,268.

The lion’s share of cases were dealt with by basic courts and prosecutors’ offices, authorised to prosecute crimes for which more lenient penalties were stipulated – fines or up to ten years’ imprisonment. The Organised Crime Prosecutor’s Office and a special division of the Higher Court in Belgrade (the Special Court) dealt with bigger cases. Over three years, this prosecutor’s office charged 232 persons for corruption-related crimes and the Special Court passed 200 guilty verdicts over the same period. Borislav Novaković told CIJS he had been first interviewed by the police about three months prior to his arrest going on to say he did not expect to be arrested.

“They did not even know how to pronounce properly either my name and surname or my public office title. They came to my door, showed their official IDs and asked me if I were Branislav Novković, a director of the public enterprise Urbanizam”, said Novaković. “When they arrest you, you’re on central news show and national breaking news. When the prosecutor’s office drops its investigation (…) and says ‘this man is innocent’, then it’s published in small print in a newspaper’s crime section which only my family and my friends would read.”

Arrests as Reality Show

Police raids and arrests over alleged corruption have been front and centre on cover pages of Serbian media in the past three years. The last one in a series was Scanner 2 operation which took place at the height of the election campaign in April 2016 as part of which 49 persons were detained.

Experience so far teaches us that only a few end up being convicted of corruption. According to the Interior Ministry data, from the 1st of January, 2013, to the 31st of December, 2015, in Serbia, 254 persons were arrested and 6,179 persons were charged with corruptive criminal offences analysed by CIJS.

The new Criminal Procedure Act, in effect since 2013, lowered the suspicion threshold required for launching a criminal investigation. CIJS’ interviewees described a number of criminal charges were brought as a potential vehicle for political score-settling as well as a means for the citizens to ‘collect debts’ through the police and prosecutors’ offices.

Deputy prosecutor with the Third Basic Prosecutor’s Office Nenad Stefanović said it was now possible to initiate investigations based on low suspicion threshold ‘just because someone doesn’t like you or wants to frame you’.

President of the Serbian Judiciary Trade Union Slađanka Milošević was of the opinion that there were both genuine criminal charges and those used for political score-settling:

“They bring charges, prosecutor’s office pokes you a bit, no evidence there, but regardless, the whole judicial machinery is set in motion, it ends up in court, but in court this can’t hold water or no guilty verdict is likely, and then we, all the citizens, pay for this shadow play involving judiciary, politics and police.”

The CIJS investigation shows that fight against corruption in Serbia for the most part comes down to only three criminal offences: embezzlement (982 criminal charges), abuse of public office (2,361) and abuse of position by a responsible person (2,098), which was introduced through amendments to the Criminal Code in 2012.

Depending on the gravity of a given criminal offence, i.e. prescribed sentence or damage inflicted, the whole proceedings are conducted by either basic or higher public prosecutor’s office. As in the case of criminal charges above, the prosecutors’ offices most often bring indictments for abuse of office and embezzlement. However, the difference in the number of people who were reported for corruption and the number of those actually charged with corruption is significant.

Statistics for the three biggest cities in Serbia – Belgrade, Niš and Novi Sad – will illustrate the point vividly. In the past three years, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade has processed reports for embezzlement, abuse of public office and abuse of position for a total of 1,376 persons, whereas bills of indictment and indictments were brought against 362. The Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad has processed reports for corruption involving 843 individuals, but indictments were brought against 68. The Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Niš has received reports for corruption against 210 persons, but indictments or bills of indictment were brought against 72 individuals.

Abuse of Abuse

Two criminal offences of abuse of office are problematic, according to some legal experts, because they are formulated in broadest terms so that, in practice, it is possible to prosecute people for a variety of things, but without big results. In its latest progress report on Serbia, even the European Commission stated that the abuse of public office was excessively used, “including in those cases where objectively there is no criminal conduct”.

Judge of the Court of Appeals in Belgrade Miodrag Majić explained that serious errors are often made in the interpretation of these offences so it is possible to prosecute “everyone and no one”. Hence, he went on, it would be for the best to either remove or replace these offences with others which would be far more specific.

“I always say the abuse of that abuse is taking place,” said Majić. “How many such cases are meaningless in legal terms from the very start… but there is a certain political pressure seeping through the media and then you plunge yourself in a stream with no end and no beginning, where everyone more or less clearly sees that this will lead to nowhere.”

High-level corruption cases are not even investigated as long as the individuals in question are a part of the current government,added Majić. Serbian deputy public prosecutor Goran Ilićexplained that abuse of public office, as it now stands, provides “a very broad discretion in prosecution”, going on to say that it should be specified in more detail.

“More often than not prosecutors resort to the charge of abuse of public office, when they are not sure if a more specific offence against public office is at issue in a given case. (…) Some types of crimes against public office are not ‘covered’ by some other criminal offence so the only thing possible is to prosecute for abuse of public office,” said Ilić.

The Justice Ministry, which has drafted new amendments to the Criminal Code, is also aware of this problem.

Radomir Ilić, state secretary with the Ministry of Justice, explained that these changes would introduce new types of criminal offences, but also modify the abuse of position by a responsible person, which would be used only if no other offence was applicable.

Otherwise, said Ilić, the court will not allow the indictment to take effect, but if that happens, it will not be able to stand the test of the appellate procedure.

Helped Themselves from Solidarity Fund to Give Over to Football Club

In the autumn of 2008, a sum of about 700,000 dinars was transferred into the account of a small football club Crnokosa from Kosjerić, from the account of this municipality’s Solidarity Housing Fund. This payment was approved by the then mayor Željko Prodanović.

This was why, in 2014, he was handed down a suspended sentence of two years. Over the course of those two years, Prodanović was first working as a deputy mayor, and then, following his resignation from this office, as a deputy in the municipal assembly.

Prodanović told CIJS he just wanted to help the local football club until it received a previously promised payment after which the money would be repaid to the municipality.

“Meanwhile, Kosjerić was placed under emergency management and I left the municipality so this wasn’t finalised, and then someone took advantage of it to attack me. (…) I didn’t do anything that hadn’t been done before to fund the football club. This was a procedural mistake there, but it had nothing to do with corruption whatsoever,” explained Prodanović.

Prodanović’s suspended sentence is a part of the aggregate statistical data provided by the basic courts which responded to the CIJS request, where 80 per cent of all the sentences are suspended ones.

Higher courts have fewer convictions, but they hand down equally often, in about 80 per cent of all the cases, prison sentences since they process more serious criminal offences resulting also in higher fines.

Out of a total number of sentences (1,861) handed down by courts in the past three years, 538 persons received house imprisonment and proper prison sentences, whereas 55 were fined. Suspended sentences were given to 1,268 persons.

As regards the verdicts themselves, taking into account all analysed corruptive criminal offences in the past three years, there were 871 acquittals as well as 463 nonsuits – where the court did not accept the plaintiff’s charges. Overall, there were 1,118 guilty verdicts of which some pertained to several individuals with different sentences.

Marko, a son of Miroslav Mišković, was recently acquitted of charges for corruptive offence. His arrest and that of his father was captured on camera by the Interior Ministry in December 2012, and the charges were brought five months later for the criminal offence of abuse of position by a responsible person and tax evasion over alleged infliction of damage to privatised road construction companies. In March 2016, Marko Mišković was sentenced on tax evasion charges to 3.5 years’ imprisonment and fined 8 million dinars. He was acquitted of the charge of abuse of position by a responsible person. The proceedings against Miroslav Mišković is still under way.

President of the Judges’ Association of Serbia Dragana Boljević said that the outcome in court depends on how well the police and the prosecutor prepare their case.

“It is not a duty of a court of law to convict someone at all costs. If there is a reasonable doubt, the court must find a way to acquit the defendant because the court is not there to mete out convictions but to administer justice,” said Boljević and added that judges needed additional training in the field of economy as some offences therein were difficult to prove.

Never-Ending Criminal Trials: Mira Marković’s Trial Adjourned 50 Times over 13 Years

Trial of Slobodan Milošević’s wife and another ten persons suspected of alleged abuse of public office for allocation of apartments is just one out of 583 criminal court proceedings which have gone on for over a decade and another 2,188 trials extending over a period of five years before Serbia’s criminal courts. Default of appearance by witnesses, adjournment of hearings, years-long length and lapse of the statute of limitations have plagued many trials.

24 June 2016

By Milica Stojanović

One of the oldest pending cases in the Higher Court in Belgrade, the trial of Mira Marković and another ten defendants, has been dragging on for 13 years already. Hearings have been adjourned at least 50 times, and the whole case has been remitted for retrial at least four times, which is bound to happen once again in September this year.

Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office pressed charges against the defendants of involvement in an illegal allocation of state-owned apartments in the year 2000. The trial has since been marked by adjournment of hearings, default of appearance by witnesses and repeated amendments of indictment. The case against two defendants was dropped due to the lapse of the statute of limitations.

Except for Mira Marković, the wife of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević and the Yugoslav Left political party leader, among the defendants were also Živka Knežević, former Serbian Government’s secretary-general; Mihalj Kertes, former head of the Federal Customs Administration; Branislav Ivković, former science and technology minister; as well as many others.

This is only one out of 583 pending criminal trials before Serbian courts whose length in late 2015 spanned a whole decade. Higher Court in Belgrade had a backlog of 38 such cases. There were many more 5-year-or-older pending cases – as many as 2,188 in aggregate in all criminal courts.

Years-long court proceedings endlessly defer meting out punishment for criminal offenders or, for that matter, prompt acquittal of those found to be not guilty as charged. At the same time, this creates a significant strain on the budgets of judicial institutions and further delays payment of damages to injured parties, be it the citizens or the state.

Center for Investigative Journalism (CIJS) interviewees cited difficulties in bringing suspects, lawyers and witnesses to trials, excessive workload for judges as well as changes to the justice system resulting in remission of cases as the reasons for lengthy court proceedings.

Attending Hearings, Paying Lawyer and Wasting Time

The trial of Mira Marković and another ten defendants charged with abuse of public office for illegal allocation of apartments was scheduled to start a day after the assassination of prime minister Zoran Đinđić on the 13th of March 2003.

Marković failed to show up at the first trial hearing. Later it would turn out she had left for Russia which is why she is on trial in absentia. This would not disrupt the trial, however, the court proceedings unfolded at a painfully slow pace for other reasons.

Most of trial hearings scheduled for 2003 did take place and the defendants presented arguments in their defence. On the 27th of October the court ruled to retry the case due to “a lapse of time” as stated in the trial records.

In the following years, the trial hearings were often adjourned. In 2005 the hearings were adjourned at least four times. When eventually a trial hearing did take place on the 10th of November that year, the case was remitted once again due to “a lapse of time”.

One of the most common reasons for adjournment of trial hearings was default of appearance by witnesses. According to the record of the hearing scheduled for the 23rd of March, 2006, witnesses Srđan Nikolić, Zlatan Peručić and Milunka Lazarević failed to appear although the official notes read that “the trial chamber president contacted by phone the female witness who promised to appear” in the courtroom.

The court records to which CIJS gained access showed that not a single trial hearing took place in 2007, whereas the trial was adjourned at least three times in 2008. Thereafter, the trial chamber presiding judge retired and the justice system reform (election and re-election of judges) was launched, which further slowed down the proceedings.

From 2012 through to 2015, trial hearings were scheduled, but never held. In addition, indictment was amended several times – the last time in April this year. The case has now been remitted once again to the phase of pre-trial review and the trial hearing is scheduled for September this year.

In the meantime, the case against two defendants – Bratislava Morina, former minister for refugees, internally displaced persons and humanitarian aid; and Petar Zeković, former interior ministry official – was dropped due to the lapse of the statute of limitations.

Branislav Ivković, one of the defendants, argued the charges against him were trumped up going on to say that the decision to award one of the apartments had been made by a seven-member commission, but only he was indicted.

“I was attending hearings at least four or five times a year, paying lawyer and wasting time,” said Ivković in response to the CIJS journalist’s question about the court proceedings.

Veljko Đurđić, a defence counsel of defendant Živka Knežević, said the excessive trial length was, among others, a consequence of an incomplete investigation, poorly collected evidence and amendments to the charges brought.

Indictment against Mira Marković was amended twice – in 2010 and 2016, respectively. Her lawyer Zdenko Tomanović said the 2010 amendment to the charges had been made only several days before the lapse of the statute of limitations, when the Prosecutor’s Office converted the criminal offence of illegal mediation into the abuse of public office.

Officials of the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office were unwilling to comment on the case stating that this would be “inappropriate” and “counterproductive for the proceedings” in a reply to the request for an interview.

Neither the Higher Court in Belgrade would grant an interview request by the CIJS journalist.

Criminal Charges from Previous Century

In the end of the last year, out of the total of 583 pending criminal cases older than ten years, basic courts had a backlog of 519 and higher courts another 64. The Higher Court in Belgrade had 38 such cases, two of which were over 15 years old. Other higher courts had fewer than five such outstanding cases in their backlog.

Belgrade courts also rank at the top of list in terms of the backlog of 10-years-and-older cases in basic courts – 27 such cases in the First, 22 in the Second and 19 in the Third Basic Court in the capital city.

In late 2015, there were 2,188 pending criminal cases older than five years on courts in Serbia. The Higher Court in Belgrade had 240 such cases and the Basic Court in Niš – 214.

The trial which has been going on for almost eight years before the Higher Court in Smederevo has been attracting public attention in Serbia because of both its excessive length and the number of defendants. Charges in the so-called “Index Affair” were first brought in 2007, amended in 2008, against 89 persons, including Kragujevac Law Faculty professors. They were suspected of selling exams in exchange for cash or luxury items such as whiskey or perfumes.

Eight years on, there is no judgment in sight, hearings have been adjourned several times, and the case against almost half the defendants was dropped due to the lapse of the statute of limitations.

In the Second Basic Court in Belgrade, the majority of pending cases older than 10 years pertain to aggravated larceny and robbery.

Judge Dejan Garić, president of the Court’s Criminal Chamber, explained that the years-long duration of trial proceedings was often down to multiple suspects and injured parties in a single case, going on to say that it was not always possible to bring them all together for a trial hearing.

“The biggest problem is that we cannot find them at all at their registered addresses, hence we cannot take any other measures,” said Garić, adding that the trial would not proceed until after the suspects were tracked down.

Garić explained that checking addresses, which often entailed a flurry of correspondence with the police, might well drag on for over a month. Therefore, it would be a good thing, he said, to have some sort of a streamlined system whereby the courts could check themselves if a suspect was serving a sentence or what his address was.

Defence counsels also fail to attend the trial. They are entitled to do so under the law, but they must notify the court about the reasons for non-attendance.

Ivana Ramić, a judge and Belgrade First Basic Court spokesperson, said such a right was being abused once in a while by defence counsels, at times with the intent to exceed the statute of limitations, particularly in cases with many suspects and lawyers involved.

At times lengthy trials render meaningless the right to damages and presumption of innocence, she added, which may lead to a loss of trust in the judiciary.

President of the Judges’ Association of Serbia Dragana Boljević said judges had an excessive workload, and therefore, it would be hard to expect of a judge with a backlog of 250 or 300 cases to schedule more than three or four trial hearings per case a year.

“Most often a judge is overburdened and has not had the time to prepare the case in question,” said Boljević.

“The judge is not quite sure what to do in a given case and at times he gets frightened by the gravity of the issue at hand so he postpones it a bit, just like any other person would procrastinate if it’s something really hard. It may seem terribly stupid to do so, but it happens because, after all, judges are also just humans.”

Pressure on Judiciary: Intimidated Judges and Prosecutors Listen In Even on Politicians Whispering

Politicians are sending out messages through the media where they pick out culprits in advance and thus bid courts and prosecutors’ offices what to do in specific cases, whilst creating an illusion in public that a case in question has been solved. Judges and prosecutors are already intimidated following the 2009 failed judicial reform.

04 July 2016

By Ivana Jeremić

At a press conference in June 2014 where Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vučić announced dismissal of four heads of police administrations, he labelled Dragoslav Kosmajac ‘Serbia’s biggest drug-dealer’. This is an individual whose name no one dares utter out loud, said Vučić, and everyone is already familiar with the ties between Kosmajac and police and other services’ officers.

In November the same year, Kosmajac was arrested, but not for drug dealing. He was apprehended on suspicion of tax evasion, abuse of office by incitement, squatting and forging a document. Some media even dubbed him ‘Serb Al Capone’.

In the autumn of 2015, the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade charged him with illegally appropriating a plot of land

of about 7.5 acres. The indictment was referred back for amendment and then brought again last month, but has still not been confirmed. Another indictment from May this year alleged that Kosmajac evaded tax to the tune of about € 4,000, but it was thrown out in the same month as the First Basic Court in Belgrade found the offence in question to be a possible misdemeanour instead of a criminal one. The First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office has appealed against this ruling.

Dragoslav Kosmajac case is not the only example in recent years where high-ranking state officials from previous governments and the current one would announce arrests, prejudice the outcomes of investigations and give estimates that a big new breakthrough in fighting corruption and organised crime has been made. For the time being, the results have failed to match the announcements.

Fear Is in the Air

In December 2015 police operation code-named Cutter, 80 persons were arrested, including former agriculture minister Slobodan Milosavljević and his associates, on suspicion of misappropriating about 7.8 million dinars in state funds. By late February all the detainees were released from custody, and the Interior Ministry filed 17 criminal charges against 93 persons by mid-June.

Following this police action, interior minister Nebojša Stefanović said the evidence collected was very solid and comprehensive‘so that it wouldn’t happen again as earlier in the past to have to ponder if there was solid enough evidence, if the suspects were to be released, if charges were to be brought against them or if everything would fall through’.

He told a press conference that sufficient evidence was gathered and that he expected ‘the prosecutors’ offices and competent courts to do their job well as part of the ongoing criminal prosecution, resulting with convictions’.

Minister Stefanović did not grant a request for an interview to the journalist from the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIJS).

Statements by politicians and public officials place a heavy burden on prosecutors’ offices and courts which are to handle cases where suspects have been labelled guilty in public thus creating an illusion that these cases have already been solved.

Whenever an expected outcome fails to come to pass, said the president of the Serbian Judiciary Trade Union, Slađanka Milošević, an opinion is created in public that prosecutors’ offices and courts are corrupt whereas the police have done their job.

The rules stipulate that a prosecutor’s office is to issue instructions to the police to gather evidence, she explained, but the prosecutors may solely act upon what the police have incorporated in criminal charges.

Serbian deputy public prosecutor Goran Ilić said it is a problem when minister announces arrests as this gives an impression of everything being motivated by political reasons even though most often this was not so.

“The moment a prosecutor takes over a case, even the minister has no knowledge, nor he should have any knowledge of the developments in the proceedings, except in the event of the prosecutor’s complaint against a police officer’s failure to act as instructed,” explained Ilić.

In its March 2016 Report on Current State in Judiciary, the Anti-Corruption Council cited as one of the biggest problems the pressure exerted on prosecutors and judges who were receiving through politicians’ statements instructions and warnings as to what they had to do.

Recently published annual report by ombudsman Saša Janković also highlighted ‘a strong public perception, which is difficult to substantiate, that judicial and prosecutorial public offices are under a strong influence of the political authorities’.

To illustrate the point, both the Anti-Corruption Council and ombudsman cited the example of former Belgrade Special Court president Vladimir Vučinić who presided over a trial chamber in the proceedings against Miroslav Mišković. Following his decision to return temporarily the passport to Mišković, Vučinić came under significant pressure which was why he eventually re-established his practice as a lawyer.

Vučinić told CIJS he would take the same decision again adding that he was guided by law and the principle of presumption of innocence in the process. He did not try to hide his disappointment over scant support by his colleagues going on to say that this perhaps was an opportunity to show some integrity.

“I think it’s fear. One should say it in public. Fear is in the air,” said Vučinić.

For days, Miroslav Mišković was the main feature in tabloids’ cover pages and politicians often cited him as an example of the fight against corruption. In June Mišković received an intermediate judgment sentencing him to five years in prison over aiding his son Marko in tax evasion, but was acquitted on charges of corruption, i.e. abuse of office.

Media are carrying uncritically the opinions of strong political figures as to how specific trials should look like, said Miodrag Majić, a judge of the Belgrade Court of Appeals, and the judiciary is sometimes susceptible to this sort of pressure.

“For quite some time, the media have served as chief messengers of the executive authority telling everyone how they should behave, even which decisions to make. (…) If there weren’t susceptible judges and prosecutors in sufficient numbers to receive such instructions, this wouldn’t be so simple”, said Majić.

In Vladimir Vučinić’ s view, public officials have no authority whatsoever to comment on the proceedings which have just started.

“All those statements, particularly if they’re coming from the government’s top brass in this country, certainly may influence anyone coming into contact with a case in question – police, prosecutors’ offices and ultimately courts.”

Nenad Stefanović, a deputy prosecutor with the Third Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, explained the pace of some proceedings might even be stepped up due to public pressure.

“The cases where there’s no either public or media pressure, except on the part of lawyers who are indeed in a hurry – well, those are the cases where I don’t know what the outcome will be”, said Stefanović.

Recently CIJS published an investigation showing that a large number of cases were going on for too long and that they were plagued by adjournment of hearings, default of appearance by witnesses and amendments to charges brought. In late 2015, there was a backlog of as many as 583 criminal cases whose trials in Serbia’s courts of first instance lasted for over a decade.

Once the corruption trials eventually come to conclusion, the sentences are for the most part suspended, whereas more than half of all the judgments from 2013 through to 2015 were acquittals and nonsuits.

Politically Eligible People End Up in High Places

Except for using media as a mouthpiece for their targeted messages, politicians are exercising their influence on judiciary through

appointments of judicial office holders. Fallout from the 2009 failed judicial reform, carried out by the then justice minister Snežana Malović, when a large number of judges and prosecutors were given their marching orders, is still being felt.

Majority of judges who were relieved of their public offices at the time by the High Judicial Council’s decision sued the state and most of them were granted damages for the time spent out of work unlawfully.

A criminal charge over alleged abuse of public office in the course of judiciary reform and the estimated damage inflicted of 1.5 billion of dinars was brought against the High Judicial Council members, but was thrown out in December 2014. The total damage inflicted on the state budget has never been established.

Fear of being removed from their offices at any given time by some executive authorities has been creeping into the prosecutors’ organisation and judicial authorities since 2009/2010, said prosecutor Nenad Stefanović.

According to Judiciary Trade Union’s Slađanka Milošević, prosecutors and judges today are intimidated by the failed judicial reform and the problem is no one’s been held accountable for blunders, “They’re so intimidated that they listen in even on politicians whispering.”

Public prosecutors are formally nominated by the Serbian Government, to which a portion of the candidates are put forth by the State Prosecutorial Council, whilst the Parliament ultimately elects them.

Prosecutor Goran Ilić said the election of prosecutors served as a conduit for letting off steam built up by politicians’ pressure on prosecutors’ offices where the appointment procedure was ultimately political in its nature.

“No one who hasn’t ingratiated himself with the current or any other government cannot be appointed to an important position in a public prosecutor’s office,” said Ilić and added that with this in mind other types of direct pressures were not necessary “given that only ‘politically eligible’ people end up in important senior positions”.

Three lawyers earned as much as their 511 colleagues

Out of 1,617 lawyers who acted as duty counsels in Belgrade, only five had more than 100 cases each – this making the total of 1,009 cases. As many as 492 other attorneys, engaged far less frequently than their five colleagues, were duty counsels in the same number of legal cases. Only three lawyers earned more than six million dinars each.

11 October 2016

By Milica Šarić

Within a period of four years, Predrag Šekara defended 362 people in his capacity as duty counsel.

According to the data provided by the courts and the police, he is the most frequently appointed lawyer in the territory of Belgrade. From the beginning of 2012 until the end of 2015 he earned almost 2.5 million Serbian dinars by doing this type of attorney jobs.

Although having the largest number of appointments, Šekara is not the best paid Belgrade duty counsel. Through a state funded defence work, his colleague Goran Jovandić earned approximately 14.7 million dinars during the same period of time.

According to what Jovandić told the journalists of the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CIJS), the amount earned was considerably smaller, although he produced no evidence to support this statement.

As per levels of their income as duty counsels, Dragomir Mrdalj with the income of almost 9.7 million dinars and Nemanja Govedarica, with the income of more than 6.9 million dinars, are the next on this list.

Duty counsels are appointed by courts, prosecutor’s offices and police, while the state pays them for their work. These institutions should be recruiting defence counsels as per order given in the list of lawyers of a competent bar association – in this case the Bar Association of Belgrade. CIJS investigation shows employment of a different practice.

For more than a year, the CIJS journalists have been gathering data from Belgrade courts and police on duty counsel defences, for the period between 2012 and 2015. Based on the information obtained, a database including the appointments of and the earnings for 1,617 lawyers has been produced and you can search it HERE. Supreme prosecutor’s office and the majority of basic prosecutor’s offices in Belgrade do not keep separate records on duty counsel defences, therefore their answers have not been included either in the database or in this story.

There are significant differences in the frequency of appointments of duty counsels. Had they been appointed in due order, each one out of 1,617 lawyers would have had nine or 10 such cases. In practice, however, only one third of them – namely 536 duty counsels were appointed 10 times or more. The others defended clients less frequently, while 321 counsels were appointed only once or twice in the course of a four-year period. As opposed to this, five most frequently appointed attorneys had more than 100 cases each.

Regardless of the fact whether they have already been paid or are yet to be paid, 88 lawyers have earned over one million dinars each, however only three of them earning more than six million dinars. These three lawyers together gained earnings of almost 31.3 million dinars, which is the amount earned by their 511 colleagues.

The CIJS contacted the most frequently appointed and the highest paid attorneys. Those of them who agreed to talk said that they had accepted the engagements offered by the institutions because the other lawyers did not want to.

Their colleagues having a significantly smaller number of duty counsel defences explain that things are different in practice. Within a four-year period, Željko Simić was a duty counsel 19 times, earning somewhat more than one million dinars. He said he used to accept these jobs every time he was in Belgrade. He is not satisfied with how this system works, as the order is not being respected: “We expect to be called when it is our turn and we also expect to receive the money on time“.

Omer Ćehović, a lawyer and President of the Association for Rule of Law and Social Justice, believes to have been called only when nobody else wanted to do the job – only three times in the course of the last 10 years. The first time they called him at night, the second time he was supposed to cover duty hours from Friday evening until Saturday morning, while the last time they called him was prior to Serbia – USA basketball finals at the Olympic Games this year.

According to Slobodan Šoškić, President of Belgrade Bar Association, it is on purpose that the lawyers are engaged without following due order, while the payments are also being arranged: “If you stick to the order, those enormous earnings for duty counsel defences can never be made by a single lawyer“.

However, according to his words, the bar association does not have the capacity to solve these problems which should actually be solved by those appointing the lawyers.

Called by courts and police stations because they lived close by

For the purposes of legal hearing, Criminal Procedure Code binds the institutions to assign duty counsels to arrested and detained persons. Those charged by prosecutor’s offices and courts for the crimes punishable by imprisonment for eight years or more (grand larcenies, rapes, murders, serious abuse of official authority, etc) must have defence counsels.

Police and judicial institutions call those attorneys listed in the lawyers’ directory who have applied for duty counsel positions, this directory being submitted by the bar association. The attorneys are listed in alphabetical order and should be called accordingly.

With regard to other institutions for which the CIJS has obtained the data, Ministry of Internal Affairs leads in the number of appointments (6,151 lawyers) and also in the amounts of the fees paid for duty counsel defences (164.4 million dinars).

At the police station in the suburban settlement of Grocka, Predrag Šekara was appointed duty counsel in 343 out of 362 such cases he overall had. He used to represent as many as four arrested people in a single day in Belgrade. He did not want to answer the questions of the CIJS journalists to explain this number of appointments.

According to the number of duty counsel defences, spouses Milorad and Snežana Matejić won the second, namely the fourth place. Milorad was appointed 259 times, of which 170 cases took place at the police station in Barajevo. In her capacity as duty counsel, Snežana had 130 defences, also mostly in Barajevo.

Milorad Matejić says that the two of them are the only ones who agree to come to the police station inBarajevo and defend the detained.

“If the police stop working, it means that we have lost everything. Having in mind that I also serve as a lawyer for the folks (…) people are addressing me and it is my wish to put in more effort for my native village“, explains Matejić, adding that he used to get up at two or three o’clock in the morning to do the job.

Within a total of 259 appointments in Barajevo during a four-year period, the Matejić family had 251 appointments. In their letter to the CIJS, the representatives of this police station said that, in order to be efficient and observe the time limits prescribed by law, they used to cooperate with a limited number of lawyers. Having in mind that Barajevo is far from Belgrade, few attorneys wanted to defend clients in this suburban settlement.

In the course of a four-year period Milica Vlahović had 139 cases as duty counsel, 114 of them at the police station in Lazarevac – vis a vis her lawyer’s office.

“Nobody wanted to go during the night, they would come to my place and beg me to come to the police station as the hearing cannot be finished without a lawyer (…) I was literally doing them a favour“, says Vlahović. Srećko Kosanović, professor at the Union University Faculty of Law, says that it is not a good solution to appoint attorneys living in a specific area. They may be in the neighbourhood and may be able to come in cases of emergency, but not all the cases are like that. He adds that, when applying to be duty counsels, the lawyers have accepted this type of commitment, aware that there is a unique list for the entire city. Therefore, it is possible that some of them do want to go to Barajevo and can get there in a rather short I would always come very quickly

All the lawyers for whom the CIJS gathered data earned a total of 446.8 million dinars, although some of this income relates to defences prior to 2012. In the past, the State was slow in paying duty counsels, sometimes these payments were years overdue, which is why many of them filed lawsuits.

This data does not include data of the Higher Court which did not provide information on individual earnings. However, they did provide the aggregate amount – during four years, they paid duty counsels almost 682.5 million dinars, more than all the other institutions together. Due to the severity of the criminal offences it prosecutes, the Higher Court pays higher lawyer fees than the other institutions.

The rate according to which state appointed lawyer’s fees are calculated is 50% lower than the usual lawyer’s rates in criminal proceedings. Lawyer’s fees are payable after concluding representation duties.

Dragomir Mrdalj is the second highest paid attorney, and the fifth most frequently appointed attorney. He lives near the Palace of Justice, the seat of several Belgrade prosecutor’s offices and courts – including the First Basic Court. Of the total of 119 duty counsel duties performed, Mrdalj was appointed in this court 67 times, and in the course of 2013 in some instances he was called to court several times during one day. The Court justified this with there being an immediate need for a defence counsel as the hearing was in progress, and in several of these cases he was engaged because “he was already in the building”.

Mrdalj explains that he was frequently called to court because he lives close by and because he had no problem with acting in his capacity even at night, regardless of whether it was raining or snowing: “I was someone who was just starting out and I never refused anything. I was called by the court administration probably because they knew that they could count on me. (…) I would always come very quickly”.

He adds that as a young lawyer (he is 37 now) he asked the courts to appoint him duty counsel in order to gain experience. Željko Simić is only two years older than Mrdalj, but he had far less duty counsel defences – of the total of 19, five were before the First Basic Court. The differences in appointment of lawyers are greater in this court than in the other two Belgrade Basic Courts.

Ivana Ramić, a judge and spokesperson of the First Basic Court in Belgrade, says that it is possible that some attorneys get the impression that they are overlooked, but that fact of the matter is that they couldn’t be reached because the court doesn’t always have up-to-date lawyer contact information. She adds that in some cases the court retains the defence counsel appointed by the prosecutor’s office during the investigation proceedings as they are acquainted with the case from the beginning.

Calling lawyers to court in order has its flaws

Even if lawyers were called by the alphabetic order, such a system is not ideal, said some of the people CIJS talked to. If the suspect is being prosecuted for murder, and the next on the list is a lawyer specializing in theft, the suspect might be at a disadvantage.

„You wind up with a lawyer who has little knowledge of the matter, with no experience, no insight into the specific field of criminal activity. (…) The interest to ensure an efficient defence surpasses the need to blindly respect the order of call “, said President of the Bar Association of Belgrade Slobodan Šoškić.

Judge Ivana Ramić explains that such circumstances could be damaging to suspects, but this is something the Bar Association should look into, as the courts have no insight into the field of specialization of each attorney.

Some of the people the CIJS talked to state that the system is now a little better regulated than it was before. Nevertheless, Željko Simić says that regulations should be amended as the same problems persist for years.

Professor Srećko Kosanović proposes as a solution maintaining a central register from which lawyers would be called, or at least a follow-up of appointments and payments. Another option is to have the State employ a small number of competent attorneys who would be required to respond when called, providing regular income for them. According to the lawyer Omer Ćehović, rigorous penalties should be introduced for failure to call lawyers by the order.

Football, Business and Politics: New Management Agency Takes Over Most Talented Partizan Players

Within little less than two years since its inception, the International Sports Office has succeeded in becoming the management agent of some of the most promising FC Partizan players. Its owners are Branko Radovanović and Dejan Grgić, who started collaboration with FC Partizan thanks to the signing of a contract with a young talented player Dušan Vlahović. On top of this, Grgić is also a friend of the Serbian Government’s secretary general and former club official Novak Nedić.

18 November 2016

By Ivana Jeremić

It was the 70th minute of the Serbian football super league match between FC Partizan and OFK Beograd when the referee stopped the game. In a part of the football pitch with substitutes benches, a player with number 9 on his back was getting ready to go onto the field. As soon as he stepped onto the grass of the stadium in Vračar, he went down in history as Partizan’s youngest debutant ever.

Dušan Vlahović was a little more than 16 at the time. Ever since, the media have been referring to him as a player who is bound to leave FC Partizan. Names of interested parties, among them the greats of European football, keep flashing by in headlines, whilst his price tag keeps rising. Nothing out of the ordinary for the Serbian football scene where the survival of clubs and satisfying the appetites of managers and players depend directly on their sales. For the most part, the exact transfer figures remain under wraps, but more often than not we are talking here about millions of euros.

This particular case stands out since the manager of this young football player does not bear a name which would be well-known to the fans. Vlahović, as a client, is represented by the International Sports Office player management agency which was established in January 2015. Within only two weeks after its inception, Vlahović signed a professional contract with Partizan.

Former player of Serbian and foreign football clubs Branko Radovanović and his business partner Dejan Grgić are the agency owners. Up until last year their names had not come up in public in connection to sales of football players.

An investigation of the Centre for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CIJS) shows that the International Sports Office sprang into action at a point when a faction close to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), including Vojislav Nedić, a lawyer and the father of the Serbian Government’s secretary general Novak Nedić, took over a leading role at FC Partizan.

According to CIJS interviewees, Dejan Grgić and Novak Nedić are friends. In addition, in 2007, Grgić replaced Novak’s mother Branislava as the head of branch office of an off-shore company incorporated in Delaware, U.S.

In the past, criminal charges of aggravated robbery had been brought against Grgić, but following several amendments to the charges filed, the prosecutor’s office in Kruševac dropped the prosecution against him declaring that there was no evidence of the criminal offence having been committed. Earlier Grgić had also been labelled in the media as a member of one of the Belgrade criminal groups, the so-called Dorćol Gang, but he flatly denied that this was so.

One Brother – A Coach, Another – A Scout

In a short space of time the International Sports Office agency has managed to attract some of the biggest talents from FC Partizan’s youth school, as well as one of the best FC Partizan’s players last season Aboubakar Oumarou, now playing for Chinese FC Shenzhen.

On its web site, the International Sports Office describes itself as “a sports management and consulting agency” which manages the careers of “well-established professional players, as well as young promising players with great future in football”.

Miloš Vazura, FC Partizan general manager, said that Novak Nedić, the Serbian Government’s secretary general and former club official, introduced him to Radovanović and Grgić. According to Vazura, he knew Grgić as Nedić’s friend.

Vazura explained that they struck a deal with FC Partizan because they managed to sign up the best young player – Vlahović.

This signing spread the news among parents which was why they gained access to other players as well.

“They didn’t ask for any money when Aboubakar was brought, which was rare,” said Vazura. “And we thanked them for it”.

He went on to say that he was not interested in who was friends with whom. It only mattered to him that the money stayed in FC Partizan’s cash box and that it was players’ concern to pick their agent.

Some of Vlahović’s peers from FC Partizan youth branch are also the International Sports Officeclients, and the agency also manages this season’s newcomer – forward Uroš Đurđević.

Most of these players played in FC Partizan under-15 football squad. The coach of these boys, born in 2000, was Milan Ristić, brother of Darko Ristić, who was named on the International Sports Officeweb site as the agency’s scout until recently, but is now referred to as a director.

Previously, Darko Ristić used to work as a PR for FC Voždovac, and Milan Ristić is currently a coach of FC Partizan subsidiary – FC Teleoptik.

According to FC Partizan general manager Mr. Vazura, Ristić brothers’ family connections were not a problem, going on to say that Milan was achieving good results as a coach.

Branko Radovanović, Dejan Grgić and Darko Ristić did not respond to the CIJS requests for an interview.

Grgić and Branislava Nedić as Off-Shore Company Reps

International Sports Office agency’s co-owner Dejan Grgić is not particularly well-known to the public in Serbia, or in the world of football for that matter. Officially, he is a co-owner of an organic food trading company and the Serbian Business Registers Agency’s data also show previous business links with the Nedić family.

Dominus LLC was established on the 7th of December 2006 in the U.S. state of Delaware, a well-known offshore territory. Excerpts from the local business register point to Vesna Nikolić from Slovenia as the company founder. In January 2007, this company’s branch office opened in Belgrade, with Branislava Nedić, the mother of the Serbian Government’s secretary general Novak Nedić, as its legal representative. Novak’s name was on one of the payment slips whereby an administrative fee for thiscompany was paid to the Serbian Business Registers Agency.

Already in April 2007, it was Dejan Grgić who replaced Branislava as the Dominus LLC legal representative, and on the very same day the address of the company’s headquarters was changed from Prespanska Street to Pavle Pap Street (now Jelisaveta Načić Street). Prespanska Street was the address which Branislava Nedić registered when setting up the company, whilst Novak Nedić declared the same address as a candidate on the Serbian Progressive Party-led coalition list running in the 2012 Zvezdara municipality local election.

The company’s branch office was closed in November 2011.

Until April 2014, Novak Nedić had been an FC Partizan management board member. Even though he submitted his resignation at the time, the media often labelled him as a man of great influence at the club. In October last year, at the FC Partizan 70th anniversary celebration, Novak took centre stage in the main hall of the National Theatre. His best man, Miloš Vazura, has been the football club general manager since 2014, but early this year they parted ways.

Novak’s father, lawyer Vojislav Nedić, used to be a vice-president and, until recently, a member of the club’s working group. He came to FC Partizan in late 2014, following a dismissal of the then club management with Dragan Đurić and senior Socialist whilst Novak has served two terms in office as the Serbian Government’s secretary general. Novak and Vojislav Nedić declined to speak to the CIJS journalists.

Bus Driver Robbery Charges

In the past, the name of Dejan Grgić was not associated with football, but it did emerge in the media in October 2007 when he drove injured Marko Filipović a.k.a. Taki to a hospital. Soon after, Filipović, who was reported to have been a Dorćol Gang member, succumbed to his injuries sustained in a blast of a bomb planted beneath his Mercedes driver’s seat. In the aftermath of the bomb blast, the then interior minister Dragan Jočić said Filipović was a member of a gang involved in racketeering and robberies.

State Shows No Interest in Fighting Corruption

The enactment of a new bill on the Anti-Corruption Agency, stipulating broader competencies to be vested in this institution, has fallen behind schedule for over two years. Independent institutions exposing corruption lack the support of the highest echelons of power. Officials are taking no notice of the Anti-Corruption Agency’s decisions whilst the government is failing to take into consideration the Anti-Corruption Council’s reports.

26 May 2016

By Anđela Milivojević

From 2012 through to 2014, the municipality of Babušnica made payments to the tune of over RSD 4 million to Juginženjering company, whose majority owner first was mayor Saša Stamenković, and later on his brother Srđan. As a local official, Stamenković was issuing payment orders in favour of the said company, failing in the process to notify the Municipal Assembly and the Anti-Corruption Agency about his potential conflict of interest.

However, acting upon a report filed, the Agency brought proceedings against Stamenković and subsequently found that “both he and the related parties benefited from this scheme thereby compromising the trust of the citizens in respect of his conscientious and accountable discharging of public office duties”. He was penalised by making public recommendation to be relieved of his post in November 2015.

Stamenković has carried on as Babušnica mayor since the municipal assembly failed on three occasions to get quorum required to vote on a motion to relieve him of his post even though Stamenković himself had filed the motion for his resignation. Thus, on 14 April this year, the municipal assembly meeting started with 35 councillors in attendance out of a total of 37.

Following a debate on Stamenković’s resignation, only 6 councillors remained in attendance, shrinking further to 4 councillors present after a fifteen-minute break, which was eventually not enough to pass a decision. A similar scenario played out at the assembly meetings on 22 April and 5 May, respectively.

This is just one of dozens of cases in which the Anti-Corruption Agency has found officials holding public office to be in a conflict of interest and issued recommendations to relieve them of their posts, but which have not been followed through in practice.

“Such actions of individual public bodies give political will precedence over the rule of law,” says Tatjana Babić, the Anti-Corruption Agency director. “If a political majority’s own decisions are taking primacy over legal solutions, then such a majority may well push through anything just because they are in the majority.”

Mr. Stamenković has not responded to requests of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CIJS) for an interview. The Agency has also filed criminal charges against him on suspicion of abuse of office.

The enactment of a new bill on the Anti-Corruption Agency, which might stipulate broader competencies to be vested in this institution, including binding decisions on dismissal of politicians from their positions, has fallen behind schedule for over two years. Nonetheless, the deadlines have been extended at least three times, hence the passage of the bill will have to wait for the first session of the new parliament.

Radomir Ilić, state secretary with the Ministry of Justice, said the quality of legislation mattered more than deadlines, “It would be better if both the Agency and the Ministry backed this bill 100%, and then there would be no flaws whatsoever in its enforcement.”

Essential anti-corruption strategic documents, such as National Strategy and Anti-Corruption Action Plan, are not being implemented consistently, said Nemanja Nenadić, Transparency Serbia programming director. He went on to say no one was held to account for a failure to meet the set deadlines and obligations, including the adoption of the new Anti-Corruption Agency bill.

Stricter Controls for Public Officials

One of the messages most often put across to public in the past two terms in office of the Serbian Government was that the talk about fighting corruption amounted to much more than just paying lip service to it. The government with Ivica Dačić at its helm passed the 2013-2018 National Anti-Corruption Strategy along with an action plan for its implementation.

The Strategy stipulated the passage of amendments to the law on Anti-Corruption Agency, which, in its capacity as an independent body, controls the financing of political parties, personal property of public officials, their private businesses and conflict of interest that may arise whilst holding public office.

As far back as 2013 the Ministry of Justice was tasked with working on a draft law for 12 months and submitting it to the government for consideration. The one-year deadline expired in mid-2014 without even a working group to start drafting the bill having been formed.

With new bill falling behind schedule, in July 2014 the Agency launched an initiative with the Justice Ministry to pass a new bill and put forward a blueprint after which the working group might model the draft law.

Problems encountered whilst operating under the existing law prompted the Agency to suggest its recommendations to dismiss public officials from their posts should become mandatory instead of non-binding. Thus, public officials would not be able to hold on to their posts if the Agency found they were in a conflict of interest or holding several public offices.

“If a city council refuses to dismiss a public official three times, each time another public official, whom have been found to be in a conflict of interest, without any explanation…, then you have to propose that your recommendation become binding instead of having a recommendation merely calling on another body to do its job,” Babić told CIJS.

In addition, the Agency sought to introduce checks of personal assets of not only public officials’ spouses and their underage children, but also their parents and adult children. Accuracy of data in personal income and property statements would also be

checked and the banks would be under an obligation to present information on personal accounts and businesses of public officials.

“Everything we’ve suggested is intended to enhance our efficiency in combating and preventing corruption and protecting public interest,” said Babić.

According to Radomir Ilić, Justice Ministry state secretary, the Ministry agrees with regard to the manner of defining public officials’ conflict of interest, personal property sheets and access to databases.

There is a disagreement though over the binding character of the Agency’s rulings, said Ilić, as such a proposal would empower the Agency to infringe on the political system and create a possibility for triggering a government crisis in the event of a dismissal of a cabinet minister. He went on to say it was indeed a problem that the recommendations for dismissals had not been acted upon so far at all.

Dragging Feet over New Law

In September 2014, Justice Minister Nikola Selaković was voicing his dissatisfaction with the implementation of measures from the Strategy’s Action Plan going on to say that “there are many anti-corruption bodies in Serbia, but no results nevertheless”.

The situation was further complicated by the proceedings brought a month later by the Agency against Selaković on account of his conflict of interest as he has been involved in the election of an advisor from the Justice Ministry as a judge and of another as a prosecutor. Thereafter, due to this case which has not yet been brought to a conclusion, the Minister has been criticising in public the work of the Agency.

In late 2014, the Justice Ministry drafted an action plan for Chapter 23 of the EU membership negotiations. Once again the deadline for the passage of the new law was extended to the first quarter of 2015.

In January 2015, Minister Selaković took a decision to set up a new draft law working group, including representatives of the Agency and the Anti-Corruption Council, Ministry of Justice, Belgrade Misdemeanour Court, Public Prosecutor’s Office and Transparency Serbia.

This body held over 20 meetings in the course of 2015, but no bill has yet been finalised to be tested in a public debate. A new extended deadline for the adoption of the new bill was set in December 2015 by the Serbian Government’s Annual Plan stipulating the completion of the bill by June 2016.

In the final version of the Chapter 23 Action Plan for accession to the European Union from April 2016, the deadline was once again extended and set for the second half of this year.

Radomir Ilić of the Justice Ministry said the Agency director was trusted with chairing the working group, hence the ministry was not solely responsible for the slow pace of the working group.

Agency director Babić said the working group faced constraints from the beginning, above all, due to its size – there were as many as 17 members, hence the meetings were often cancelled for lack of quorum.

Nemanja Nenadić, also a working group member, said one of the reasons for delays stemmed from the general attitude of the executive branch of government towards independent bodies, including the Agency, “which has evolved from support for them 4-5 years ago into their treatment as enemies”.

Adoption of the new law is a sensitive issue, explained Nenadić, as it is hard to come up with solutions which would not send shock waves through the entire system. Therefore, he went on, many reasons could be found for foot-dragging, but such delays were directly precipitated by reasons which were political in their nature and by some sort of a stand-off.

The European Commission’s 2015 Serbia Progress Report also highlighted the issue of major delays in amending the Anti-Corruption Agency Act. Fighting corruption received one of the poorest marks in the report and the adoption of a new Anti-Corruption Agency law was referred to as something that Serbia needed to do as soon as possible.

No One Needs Council Reports

The Anti-Corruption Agency is not the only anti-corruption body facing problems in its work and being given the cold shoulder by the institutions. Since its inception in 2001, the Anti-Corruption Council has been constantly alerting the authorities to corruption in various walks of life and in institutions, but their reports are not promptly acted upon, whilst their appeals fall on deaf ears in the government.

Just in 2015 the Council compiled six reports on pressures and ownership in the media, public sector advertising, Serbia

Railways business operation, procurement of electric meters by the Ministry of Mining and Energy, unlawful privatisation proceedings and Dipos doo Belgrade business operation, respectively.

“There’s been no reaction to any of the reports… Never has the prime minister called us, and yet we’ve asked for meetings countless times (…) As if we didn’t exist, as if he couldn’t care less about our work,” said Vasilić.

For almost two years already the Council has been operating without some of its members as the Government is not responding to its repeated requests for filling the vacant posts.

“One may claim with certainty that the failure to fill the vacancies in the Council is a direct consequence of the lack of support for these institutions, i.e. the authorities’ backlash against their critical remarks,” said Nenadić.

The Council’s reports on twenty-four contentious privatisation cases and the sale of state-owned companies were made a condition for Serbia’s accession to the EU in 2011 and the last two governments both pledged these cases would be resolved soon.

However, according to the CIJS investigation in 2015, out of a total 24 cases, not a single judgment was handed down, whereas trials were set in motion in only five cases. In the meantime, one year on, draft charges in another case have been filed with the Higher Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, whereas other cases are stranded in the investigation phase.

Anabolics mafia

May 4, 2016, Chisinau International Airport. A plane loaded with mailing bags of „Posta Moldovei” takes off to Frankfurt. Among the packages sealed with adhesive tape on which the name „Posta Moldovei” and the customs stamp are printed , there are three bags with the logo of „Posta Moldovei” containing small packets with anabolics. At Frankfurt Airport, the bags of drugs prohibited for export are moved to another plane, which also heads to the US.

In the same way, from 5.400 to 7.800 packages containing anabolics worth about $ 200 each of them go to the US, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain, but also to Australia and former Soviet countries. The monthly value of parcels of anabolics sent via „Posta Moldovei” varies between a million and a million and a half dollars. According to several sources, the scheme has been working for over ten years.

Illicit packages

Anabolic steroids and androgens are synthetic hormones which increase the body’s ability to produce muscle tissue. Lately, these substances are in high demand among athletes and people who want to increase their muscle mass or to achieve a sports performance in a short term. In all EU member states, most CIS countries and the USA, these substances are prohibited for manufacturing and selling. In Moldova, the production of most anabolics, however, is legal, and the sale – free in pharmacies.

Packages with anabolics typically arrive through the back door of Moldovan Post. Bags loaded with steroids are often brought by the EMS (Expres Mail Service) drivers who receive them from „customers” according to addresses mentioned by them. „The places are different and I do not really remember any of them to be similar. It happens them to be on the outskirts, or near buildings under construction”, say sources from the state enterprise. Because of the risk posed to these people, we decided to keep their anonymity. Their words are confirmed by a video recording that has come into our possession. It is seen that an employee of „Posta Moldovei” is loading into an EMS car two big boxes, without complying to the rules of receiving an order: packages are not weighed, no  barcodes are assigned, the sender is not receiving a receipt. Former head of the Center for Post Office Processing and Transportation (CPTP), Sorin Stati, says that the boxes appearing in the video contain anabolics.

The same scheme of transporting banned substances to „Posta Moldovei” is mentioned in the Act on the complex control of economic and financial activity of the subsidiary of „Posta Moldovei”, CPTP, developed in 2012 by the Financial Control and Internal Audit Service. At that moment it was led by Sergiu Cebotari, who previously made several disclosures about anabolics smuggling from „Posta Moldovei”. (See here an excerpt from the Act).

Betrayed by receipts

Arriving at the Post Office no. 2000 on 3, Piata Garii street in Chisinau, bags with anabolics are transported directly to the third floor –  the Service of post letters, without passing the control of postal operators and the one of the custom officer on the first floor, who should check whether any prohibited items are in the parcels. Our sources say that packets avoiding the official procedure would arrive at the post office already sealed with adhesive tape of „Posta Moldovei”, having barcodes (a code consisting of two letters and nine digits used to track the location of the package throughout its transportation – Ed.) and even a customs stamp. The only thing offered to the post office operators is a list with barcodes that are entered into the Post’s database, while cashiers issue receipts for transporting parcels which they have not even seen.

The allegations are confirmed by documents that have come into our possession. According to the receipts issued by the POS machine of the Post Office no. 2000, on March 7, 2015, the cashier issued 22 receipts for  22 small packages weighing 250-550 grams in just four minutes (from 11.25 to 11.29). Therefore, to serve each of the 22 different customers the cashier spent only ten seconds (if they had been one person, only one receipt would have been issued – Ed.). Moreover, although the packages were processed one after another,  the numerical order of barcodes that were applied is not respected. The first package has the barcode “RB022040576MD”, while three barcodes issued next – “RB022040580MD”, “RB022040562MD”, “RB022040973MD”.

The experiment

To check how real might be such a performance, our reporter went to the same post office and tried to send a similar parcel containing a book and a box of anabolics. The whole procedure lasted more than eight minutes and the customs officer, after checking the contents of the package, removed the box of pills and asked us what kind of drugs they are. After saying that they are used to increase the muscle mass, the customs officer and one of the postal operators exchanged complicit glances, and then she returned the package with anabolics, explaining that their transportation abroad is prohibited. The receipt for the  transportation of the package is issued only after its contents is checked by the customs, while the postal envelope is sealed and weighed by another operator. If senders of parcels recorded in receipts had respected all the legal procedure mentioned above, customs officer and the two postal operators would have had to move with an incredible speed to succeed performing all the operations in just ten seconds.

Packages from the future

There is other evidence indicating that the bags containing packages with anabolics are not checked at the post office. In some manifest documents, which are generally processed by postal operators only after receiving letters/parcels from the sender, so to be further directed to the Service of post letters of CPTP, it is indicated an earlier time than the one at which the operator would have received the parcel from the customer, issuing a receipt, which is impossible.

For instance, on June 7, 2016, for a small package with the barcode “RB023246041MD”, the manifest is drawn up at 11:53. According to the receipt, the customer brought the package with this barcode three hours later, at 14.42.

See below several cases of this kind

Although not knowing the content of the controversial packages, workers of the Service of post letters of CPTP recognize them from barcodes with a „special” serial number, used only for packages getting there mysteriously and which have to leave the building without passing through the customs scanner installed on the third floor. These special barcodes are very useful later as well: in case a parcel turns back, it is taken over by the same employees of post service, before reaching the hands of customs officials, so to be handed over to a responsible person from the CPTP management. Normally, in case of a return, the parcel should be given to the sender.

Fake senders to doubtful destinations

It is very difficult to figure out who are the senders of parcels with anabolics. Names and addresses indicated on several parcels with steroids whose pictures came into our possession are fake. Thus, on one of the postal items which should have been sent on February 3, 2015, under the heading sender it is indicated the name of Leonid Panzari who lives in Chisinau, on 17, Ialoveni street. The owners of this house argue that they don’t know any person with this name. We could not find Petru Cusnir either, who would live on 4, Hotin street in Chisinau, and who allegedly tried to send a parcel with anabolics on February 7, 2016, the day when the consignment of smuggled good was captured by the Security and Intelligence Service. Data on the sender of a parcel with anabolics in 2010 – Leonid Frolov, who allegedly lives on 17, Pavel Botu street – have also proved to be false. Please note that the last building on this street has no. 15.

In the case of recipients the situation is similar. For example, 633 Cochrane rd. Park Hills, Missouri 63601, indicated as the address of a person named Michael Hater who allegedly received a parcel with anabolics in February 2011, is actually a wooded area of a park in that American town. Similarly, 715 SE 20 Th AVE 3, Derfield BCH, Florida 33441, where Eric Bakter was awaiting the shipment with anabolics sent by Leonid Panzari, is actually a hotel.

A scheme involving two ministers   

MP Grigore Cobzac, the chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for investigating the involvement of „Posta Moldovei” in illegal transportation of anabolics, came to the same conclusions. On October 13, 2016 he made public an alternative report about his findings. According to the MP, smuggling of anabolics has continued during the activity of the commission, and some documents that could have served as evidence were destroyed during its activity. Cobzac explained that during the commission’s work several high-ranking officials tried to prevent the investigation by delaying responses, giving false or scarce information, or refusing to provide any facts. Given that, as well as other evidence uncovered during the investigation, the chairman of the commission suggests that in the scheme of anabolic substances are allegedly involved the minister of Finance Octavian Armasu, the minister of Information Technology and Communications Vasile Botnari, general director of the Customs Service Vitalie Vrabie, general director of the State Enterprise „Posta Moldovei” Serghei Nastas, and deputy director general of „Posta Moldovei” Sergiu Batiusca. All of them would be involved by failing to take all the necessary measures in order to stop illegal transportation of prohibited substances via „Posta Moldovei”.  Cobzac recommends the resignation of mentioned officials. He also calls on law enforcement bodies to establish the level of involvement and responsibility of the current Prime Minister Pavel Filip, who used to be the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications, the institution responsible for the activity of „Posta Moldovei”.

„It is a phenomenon that can seriously affect Moldova’s image on the international arena. The presence of Moldovan drugs on the black market of anabolics is impressive”, said Cobzac.

„I do not comment this absurdity!”

„I am not aware of allegations made by Grigore Cobzac and I am not going to comment on such absurdity”, said Sergiu Batiusca to us, the deputy general director of  „Posta Moldovei”.  He hung up before letting us to ask him for a comment on the allegations that Sergiu Cebotari rejected the Audit Act drafted in 2012 and which reveals the anabolics smuggling scheme via „Posta Moldovei”. Neither Serghei Nastas commented on the allegations. We requested him, in an official letter, to communicate whether any internal investigation has  ever been conducted in order to verify the allegations. In response, Nastas told us that the Parliamentary Commission should bring details on that, while „Posta Moldovei” has no other comment.

Both minister of Finance Octavian Armasu and minister of Information Technology and Communications Vasile Botnari did not respond to our phone calls in order to give any comments. Neither Prime Minister Pavel Filip offered a comment regarding the allegations related to him. At the same time, Moldovan Customs Service has not provided any answer after being requested to give information on cases of involvement of customs officials in transporting illicit parcels with anabolics, even though the request was sent on September 13.

Earlier, in a reply offered to the Center for Investigative Journalism after a refferal on anabolics smuggling was published on the Corruption Map, the Customs Service informed us that the circulation of these substances is under their attention, measures being taken to not admit illegal import of raw material for the preparation of anabolics and illicit export of these substances. As for the transportation of anabolics via „Posta Moldovei”, the director of the Customs Service, Vitalie Vrabie, told us that „after a prior analysis of the situation, a significant involvement of public authorities has been highlighted, a fact that puts into maximal difficulty a detailed customs control, and even the impossibility of carrying it out. Given the type of activity of State Enterprise „Posta Moldovei”, there are a number of mechanisms allowing packaging and sealing of goods without the presence of a customs officer”.

The „resounding” seizure

February 7, 2016. A task force of several Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) officers  and border policemen burst into Chisinau International Airport and discover, among packages of „Posta Moldovei” ready to be loaded on a plane, 15 postal bags containing 387 packages of anabolics masked as books and advertisement products. SIS qualifies it as a „record” contraband, and the value of the goods is estimated at hundreds of thousands of euros. The news about the seizure spreaded in the majority of Moldovan media outlets, but the real reverberation occured at thousands of kilometers away from Chisinau, in the US, where many sportspeople – amateurs or professionals – were awaiting the packages ordered from Moldova and were wondering if Moldovan intelligence service officers would reach them. „Does anyone know if the US is involved in this operation? I would not say, but I know about its involvement in similar stuff in Thailand”, says a consumer of anabolics on an American forum.

Although considered as an unprecedented operation, the criminal case reached quickly the hands of the employees of the criminal prosecution body of the Customs Service. That happened despite the fact that the parcels with anabolics which were to be smuggled out of the country had a Customs Service stamp on them. This may be seen on the photos presented by SIS.

Prosecutor: „People involved were identified”

In a formal response received from the Prosecutor General’s Office on September 24, we were informed that the criminal case was opened on the attempt of passing goods in large proportions through counterfeit declarations in Moldovan customs documents. Prosecution is led by Prosecutor’s Office for the combating of organized crime and special causes. Its head, Corneliu Bratunov, avoids providing more details under the pretext of investigation secrecy.

Vitalie Busuioc, the prosecutor responsible for the case, said that investigations are underway and that the majority of people involved have been identified. Currently, they are heard. At the same time, the law enforcement bodies are investigating the report of the Parliamentary Commission, that they received recently.

The contraband seized in February 2016 is treated by steroids consumers  as a consequence of a war between two global networks selling anabolics: Pharmacom Labs and Napsgear (the second one sells anabolic products of Genesis Pharmaceuticals, whose drugs were found in packages seized by SIS officers – Ed.).

A silenced operation

SIS is cheating when stating that the seizure of February 2016 is unprecedented. According to some information, in the spring of 2009, SIS captured another large amount of anabolics which were to get abroad according to the same scheme. That time, similarly, parcels were sent via „Posta Moldovei” to the USA, Spain, Ireland. Moreover, according to a blog post published in June 2009 by the US sportsman Anthony Roberts, a known campaigner  against the use of anabolics, in the case of 2009 seizure SIS worked with the World Anti-Doping Agency. Names and addresses of the recipients of the seized packages  were handed over to authorities in their countries. Roberts attached to his article some photos of the operation carried out in Chisinau, confirming that the action took place indeed. In Moldova, no word was murmured about this contraband.

Artur Resetnicov, SIS director at that time, says he does not remember anything about such an operation, but he can not exclude that it took place. „We had several operations. I no longer remember all of them”, he answered.

The secret office of SIS, located in the heart of illegalities

Alexandru Popescu, former chief of the SIS Direction working on countering illicit trafficking of prohibited substances and which endanger the state security, says that during his 30 years of work at SIS the smuggling of anabolics had not represented an alarming phenomenon. Popescu left his job in 2012.

„SIS does not make a show of its work. There are several documented cases and state institutions informed. Based on this information several criminal cases were initiated. I documented a scheme through which active ingredients used for anabolics were smuggled to Moldova from China, through the Black Sea region, but back then the production of anabolics did not used to be so developed. Certainly, the scheme could not exist without the involvement of officials from the Customs Service. In the current situation it is obvious that such a scheme had functioned under protectionism, a situation which should be investigated and researched”, says Popescu. At the same time, he adds that SIS is not able to replace the work of other bodies, especially given that several positions within SIS were cut down.

Reliable sources from the State Enterprise „Posta Moldovei” revealed us that a secret office of ISS used to be located within the Post Office on 3, Piata Garii street,  where the processing of all postal parcels in the country takes place. It was closed in 2013, according to a decision taken by Mihai Balan, the current director of Security and Intelligence Service, in order to reduce expenses. Popescu claims he knows nothing about this office. Instead, Grigore Cobzac confirms its existence. „We received a reply from SIS showing that there used to be such a subdivision, located in the Post Office no. 2000. According to SIS director, it was specialized only in providing operative and technical measures, without investigative functions. Mihai Balan says that he decided to stop its activity given the need to optimize the SIS flowchart, after evaluating the output of this particular subunit”, explains Cobzac.

No matter the presence of security officers, the „strategic” office of „Posta Moldovei” is monitored 24/24 by several hundred cameras installed in every room of the building. Until „Posta Moldovei” was passed under control of the the Democratic Party, the guard of the building and the control of video cameras used to be provided by the security guard company „Legion”. Since 2012, the guarding is provided by the security company „Argus-S”, founded by the offshore Otiv Prime Services B.V affiliated to Vlad Plahotniuc.

US police chief accused of smuggling anabolics from Moldova

In the United States, where the greatest amount of anabolic substances from Moldova arrives (according to our sources, from there, a large part of the substances are loaded on ships and diverted to the African continent – Ed.), there were several criminal investigations that targeted the smuggling of steroids from Moldova. In September 2014, the law enforcement officers in Jacksonville, Florida – the twelfth most populous city in the US – detained Michael Classey, the Atlantic Beach local police chief. He was suspected of smuggling anabolics and drugs from Moldova and India. The Department of Homeland Security was alerted after being thought that Classey ordered several packages of anabolics from both countries. The packages were delivered to “Michael Cassey” at a UPS store postal box in Jacksonville.  Several other vials with injectable anabolic steroids coming from Moldova were found at Classey’s home. However, the smuggling scheme could not be proved because, helped by his son, Classey managed to cover his tracks, throwing the computer with all relevant information.

According to US media, the Atlantic Beach local police former chief was initially risking 100 years in jail. The sentence was reduced considerably after the defendant managed to persuade magistrates that he ordered the substances for personal use and that he was an alcoholic.

US media: „Moldova, a country with a high risk of anabolics smuggling”

Four months later, in January 2015, a football player from Carroll College Saints, state of Montana, was detained by law enforcement officers after being discovered that he bought illegally anabolic steroids online. The parcel intercepted contained 600 pills of „Strombafort” and „Danabol”, produced by a well-known Moldovan pharmaceutical company Balkan Pharmaceuticals. Jordan Jernigan pleaded guilty and admitted that he and his colleague from Montana State University obtained those substances by post. The operation was conducted by the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration, in collaboration with the Customs Service in New Jersey, Helena Police Department, the Postal Inspection Service and the Missouri River Drug Task Force (MRDTF). Because he cooperated with the investigation, the American football player was sentenced to a six month suspended prison sentence.

We found similar cases in other US states. According to articles published in American press, Moldova is a country with a high risk of anabolics smuggling, so the envelopes and packages received from our country are much more often checked by American postal inspectors than those from other states.

To learn how frequent are cases of seizure of anabolics from Moldova, we sent official requests of information to the US Anti-Doping Agency, to the Postal Inspection Service, and to the Drug Enforcement Administration. After more than a month and a half, we have not received any answer. Press officers of these three institutions confirmed by phone only the fact that our requests had been received and the documents would be sent as soon as they are ready.

Underground wars

Anthony Roberts is a former American sportsman who managed to obtain performances in martial arts and rugby, becoming a player in first division rugby union in the north Harbour province of New Zeeland and second grade rugby league in the same country. According to specialized websites, he is described as a fierce campaigner against consumption and trafficking of anabolics, being the author of several books on the subject. We contacted him to ask about the black market of anabolics from Moldova, as well as about the misterious contraband seized by SIS in 2009, mentioned earlier. Anthony Roberts says that the target of the 2009 operation was a company producing  anabolics illegally – Geneza Pharmaceuticals (we would like to point out that the packages seized by SIS in February 2016 were containing products of the same company – Ed.).

„Vlad Nistor was the owner back then. I don’t know if he still is. He’s not the sportsman. He’s been a steroid dealer for at least the past ten years, with different names for his lab. There are some steroid dealers in Moldova who are relatives of politicians. He isn’t. But Maybe he works with them now?”, Anthony added.

Outlaw internationally wanted, dealer of Moldovan anabolics

Anthony, appreciated by some specialized websites as a „guru” in anabolics, explains that  Geneza Pharmaceuticals (a company not officially registered in Moldova – Ed.) is owned by „Naps/Napsgear”, a website that sells steroids, and previously worked with „Axio Labs & GenXXL”, a major producer of steroids at a global level. Axio owner, Brian Wainstein, was arrested a few years ago in South Africa.

Wainstein’s arrest is directly related to anabolics coming from Moldova. According to the information from a criminal case of his accomplices, from New Jersey federal court, Wainstein led a steroid manufacturing operation called Axio Labs. At the same time, the dealer, known as one of the most important at a global level, sent Moldovan anabolics to different addresses in the United States in 2007. Intermediaries who were receiving packages of drugs (law enforcement officers associate, in this case, steroids with drugs – Ed.) were repackaging them and forwarding to final customers in the US, according to the City Paper from Tennessee. In this case, two bodybuilders from New Jersey were indicted – Darin Dudash and Anne Dudash. In the operation of capturing Brian Wainstein, who had been internationally wanted during many years, there were involved intelligence services and law enforcement institutions from  Canada, the US, Britain and other countries.

Moldova, among the leaders in the production of anabolics at a global level

Anthony Roberts could not tell us who are the dealers of anabolics with ties to Moldovan politicians, but said that nowadays Moldova is one of the largest manufacturers of anabolic steroids worldwide. Often these substances leave Moldova to countries as Israel, Cyprus etc., being loaded afterwards on ships heading to their final destination.

The fact that Moldova is nowadays a major player on the black market of anabolics was confirmed by the Russian bodybuilder  Dmitri Kolomoitzev, in an article published by Forbes Russia. According to him, the beginning of production of anabolic steroids in Moldova is linked to British Dragon, an anabolic factory in Thailand, founded in the 90s by the American Richard Crowley. Crowley’s business partner in Eastern Europe was Alin, a Romanian businessman who was arranging the delivery of raw materials and anabolics to Russia in unsanitary conditions, says Dmitri Kolomoitzev, called „the king of anabolics” in Russia. „In 2006, Alin founded in Moldova the company Balkan Pharmaceuticals, which gradually emerged from obscurity and began to deliver drugs to Moldovan hospitals. Balkan owns today a factory of about 15,000 square meters in Sangera, which produces a wide range of steroids”, according to Forbes. Several sources say that Alin is nowadays one of the biggest dealers of anabolics worldwide. „The king of anabolics” specifies that Moldovan producers allegedly control half of the Russian market of anabolics.

We got in touch with Dmitri Kolomoitzev to talk more on the subject. Initially, the Russian bodybuilder was ready to discuss, but as soon as we invoked Alin’s name, his attitude changed . „It rather seems to be an interrogation”,  he reacted.

Looking for Alin                                           

All our sources who know more about smuggling of anabolics have been reluctant to discuss on the mysterious character Alin, recommending us Balkan Pharmaceuticals as a starting point of research. The company was founded in 2006 and is associated with  SRL Global Alliance (50%) and British Dispensary Corporation (50%), a company founded in Panama in 2007. The administrator of Balkan Pharmaceuticals is the Romanian citizen Silviu Florin Chiru. Please note that it is the only pharmaceutical company in Moldova that produces legally  anabolic drugs for human use.

British Dispensary Corporation appears as a founder of Moldovan company Genetic Engineering  and Pharmacy Institute, run by Teodor Hauca, former Romanian senator during 1996-2000, elected in Suceava county on PD lists. Hauca runs Global Alliance SRL as well (second associate of Balkan Pharmaceuticals – Ed.), founded by Think Concept Corporation from Belize. We did not manage to find out who are the real owners of Balkan, as they hide  their owners in offshore zones. Instead, we found in the Cadastre interesting details  on the building and the plot with address Gradescu 4 street, where the Balkan factory is located. The building was purchased on June 21, 2005 by Medstar Company, a firm founded in 2004 by Richard Edwin Crowley (known dealer of anabolics worldwide, owner of British Dragon which we mentioned earlier – Ed.) and Andy Nemed, an individual with a criminal record in Romania. On October 9, 2006, Crowley’s company sells the construction  to Alin Hauca, Romanian senator’s son. One month after, on November 15, 2006 Alin Daniel Hauca founded Balkan Pharmaceuticals as the sole shareholder. Administrator of the company is the Romanian citizen Irina Maria Andreescu. According to Romanian press, Alin was allegedly involved in the Rosia Montana scandal related to gold mining. We failed to find further information on the businessman. Two months later, on January 29, 2007 Alin gave his shares to Gheorghe Andreescu. Our sources argue that Romanian senator’s son is not the character we’re looking for. Less than two months after this transaction, the building was sold to Dorin Tanase, the son of the well-known physician Adrian Tanase. In 2008, Dorin Tanase managed to buy from the Chisinau City Hall seven acres of land on which the building is situated. Between April 2, 2007 and July 13, 2007, Dorin Tanase was associated and the sole director of the pharmaceutical company. Later, he gave the control of the  company to Global Alliance, which  took as co-partners British Dispensary Corporation in Panama in 2013. In April 2009, Dorin Tanase sold the building and the land on which the factory Balkan is located to the couple Teodor and  Mariana Hauca, who transferred it by a bailment to Balkan Pharmaceuticals in 2012.

„I do not want to talk on this subject”

We failed to obtain a reaction from the pharmaceutical company regarding the selling abroad of drugs containing anabolics. The company’s secretary asked us to send our questions via e-mail to her manager, Silviu Florin Chiru, which has not answered.

Contacted by phone, Dorin Tanase confirmed that he knew Teodor and Alin Hauca, but denied that it had any connections with Balkan Pharmaceuticals. Asked about the transaction with the building on 4, Gradescu street, Tanase told us he was not willing to discuss the topic.

We have not managed to find Alin and Teodor Hauca either. On June 10, 2016, the former senator was indicted by DNA’s (National Anticorruption Directorate) Department of combating corruption, in the case of Dan Anton, former judge of Iasi Court of Appeal, who was boasting that he might provide protection to some Italian businessmen at the level of Moldovan Prime Minister.

Stati’s company producing anabolics?

Another major manufacturer of synthetic hormones in Moldova is Vermodje, founded in 2001, but registered in 2005. Officially, the company is owned by Victor Minciuc and Olga  Moldovanu. Minciuc is a businessman having close ties to Gabriel Stati, and the manager of several businesses in Stati’s holding, including the former supermarket chain „Piatiorocika”. The pharmaceutical company Vermodje was previously  included by media in Stati’s properties list, stating that it is one of the leaders in the production of ascorbic acid, aspirin and citramon.

What has not been said so far is that Vermodje holds registration certificates to produce a range of anabolic preparations for veterinary use, which are sold abroad on specialized websites as steroids for human use. Until a year ago, the company had its factory in Ghidighici village, a suburb of the Capital, on 39 A, Stefan cel Mare street. The guard of the building we found when we went to talk with company representatives informed us that Vermodje left the location almost a year ago, even though the owners made significant investments in modernizing the factory in 2013.

According to an announcement in Monitorul Oficial (The Official Journal of Moldova), edition of June 10, 2016, Vermodje changed its legal address on 44/5 Dacia boulevard, apt. no. 93. According to data from the Cadastre, the apartment belongs to Maria Sergeyeva, a 70-year-old woman.

A specialized website for anabolics consumers states that although Vermodje promotes its products as steroids for veterinary use, this „trick” would be used to reduce state taxes and simplify the certification procedures. „Otherwise, their products do not differ in any way from those of other companies that make steroids for human use”, says the source.

Criminal case with „happy end”

A year ago, a video published on YouTube was showing Vermodje company and the unsanitary conditions in which the firm would keep its active substances and preparations. The video appears to be filmed by law enforcement officers within a criminal case opened in March 2014 on illegal entrepreneurial activity resulting in large undeclared profit. The video shows that at the Vermodje factory’s premises were discovered  labels of various brands of drugs – renowned brands of anabolics „Radeja”, „Radjay” și „Pharma Tech”.

On January 12 ,2016, the Central District Court of Chisinau issued a decision on this matter, recognizing Vermodje guilty. The sanction imposed is a fine worth 45.000 lei and cancellation of factory’s activity.

In the judgment it is stated that Vermodje, upon an agreement with Boris Slobozian, employee of the company, organized the production of several pharmaceutical products  (in the judgment of the trial are given the names of several anabolic preparations – Ed.). That happened during 2013-2014, in the absence of an Activity License and certificates of drugs registration at the Medicines Agency. Then, through Boris Slobozian, drugs were sold to various individuals from Moldova, including Stanislav Struzberg (products worth 1,3 million lei, not reflected in the accounts of the company) and Igor Gubarev (products worth 134.280 million). Another batch of medicines sold by Vermodje and worth over three million lei was discovered by law enforcement officers on 5/1 Bariera Sculeni street. According to the Financial Inspection, in January-August 2014  Vermodje did not reflect the production and sale of pharmaceutical products worth 4.157.407 lei. Its manager, Zinaida Bat, admitted the guilt.

Still selling drugs without a factory

Dissatisfied with the court’s decision, Vermodje addressed to the Court of Appeal, which issued a separate ruling on April 22, reducing the period of deprivation of the right to exercise the activity of manufacturing medicines up to one year. The court expressly stated, with reference to several test reports, that the drugs found in Stanislav Struzberg’s house and that were purchased from Vermodje are „medicinal products with strong effect, containing anabolic steroids”. Judged in a separate criminal case for illegal purchase and subsequent selling of anabolic substances abroad, Sturzberg – who pleaded guilty in court – was acquitted on the grounds that „he is a good family man and has no criminal record”.

Although officially Vermodje stopped its work about a year ago, following the criminal investigation and the court decision, the company’s products continue to be found on sale on websites for anabolic consumers.

Our attempts to contact the management of Vermodje failed. Minciuc’s phone number, obtained from his business partners, is no longer available. On the other hand, the old landline number of the company is inactive.

Anabolics from the former president of the Bodybuilding Federation

Euro Prime Pharmaceuticals is the latest and the newest Moldovan company manufacturing products containing synthetic hormones. The company was opened on July 29, 2014, during the time when Vermodje came to the attention of law enforcement officers. The company was founded by Lilia Cojan and Dumitru Sergeyevich, bodybuilder and former president of Moldova Bodybuilding Federation. Like Vermodje, Euro Prime Pharmaceuticals produces drugs with  anabolic effects for veterinary use. On a Russian website, a person claiming to be one of the company’s employee, praises its production, especially the brandly new series „Golden Dragon”. They used to be produced by an Ukrainian anabolics factory, well-known to steroids consumers. In 2016, the factory won „Notorium” contest as the best pharmaceutical company in Moldova (!).

Today, products of Euro Prime Pharmaceuticals may be found in online anabolics stores from Ukraine and Russia.

Some other links seem to exist between Vermodje and Euro Prime Pharmaceuticals. According to data from the State Registration Chamber, the elder brother of Dumitru Sergeyevich, Alexander, is a business partner of Boris Slobozian, employee of Vermodje, targeted in the criminal case on illegal commercialization of anabolics to the pharmaceutical company. Magic Step company was founded in September 2014, two months after Euro Prime Pharmaceuticals was officially registered.

We tried to get in touch with Dumitru Sergeyevich through Moldova Bodybuilding Federation (FB). Aurelian Gorea, current president of FB, said that Sergeyevich is no longer president of the federation. According to Gorea, he was excluded after some members of the federation received signals about the fact that he wanted to promote the sale of anabolics within FB and abroad.

„No one needs Moldovan anabolics”

Dumitru Sergeyevich avoided talking about the pharmaceutical factory he manages, stating that it has nothing to do with anabolics for human use. „My company produces hormonal preparations, for veterinary use which means animals”, he pointed out, ignoring the question on how his company’s products reach the Russian market.

Asked if there is any connection between Vermodje and Euro Prime Pharmaceuticals, Sergeyevich denied. „None. My brother used to work as a technologist there and then he left. Now he works for me. He and Boris are friends. They have a business with shoes”, he told us.

In response to allegations of Aurelian Gorea, Sergeyevich claims that Gorea did not fire him. „I left myself. I supported this federation. I’m an international judge in this sport. It’s very unpleasant to hear such allegations from a person who did nothing for sport. I really contributed to the development of this sport in Moldova. I have never sold anabolics to members of the federation”, said Sergeyevich.

Regarding the Moldovan market of anabolics, Sergeyevich denies the phenomenon. „Do we have a market of anabolics? There are few sportspeople in Moldova. As on factories, no one needs Moldovan anabolics anymore. You know why? Because Russia and Ukraine produce their own anabolics, over 100 product names. Underground factories are numerous in the USA as well. There is no room for Moldovan anabolics out there. A clandestine anabolics factory using the name of Moldova on its products was recently dismantled in Ukraine and Poland. They use names of Moldovan companies and brands to produce fake anabolics. 90 percent of the world anabolics are produced in China and Ukraine, Poland earlier.  Everything Kolomoitzev says is a lie, just fantasy. I know him. He used to sell anabolics.  I heard about Alin, but have never met him”, Sergeyevich told us, adding he does not believe that  there are clandestine factories of anabolics in Moldova and that there is any smuggling of these preparations.

Underground factories

While Sergeyevich rejects the existence of clandestine factories, SIS suggests that they exist, in the press release disseminated after the operation of February 7, 2016. „Intelligence and Security Service notifies the public opinion, especially bodybuilding sportsmen, on the avoidance of using medically uncertified products that could be manufactured in artificial conditions and that would endanger health”,  says the release. We have identified four such laboratories: Genesis Pharmaceuticals, Evolution Pharma, Pharmacom Labs and SP Laboratories.

Geneza Pharmaceuticals is the „star” of the 2009 and 2016 seizures of SIS officers, as well as of an operation conducted by law enforcement officers in Poland in March 2011. Then the police and Polish customs officers found in the apartment of a criminal group trading anabolics, several boxes with Genesis Pharmaceuticals preparations, along with other anabolics from Moldova. Anthony Roberts claims that Genesis’ owner is anyone named Vlad Nistor. We failed to identify the person, but in the CIS database there is a person named Vladimir Nistor, founder of an inactive pharmaceutical company, Justas Farm, founded in 2003. The company has its legal address on 36 Tolstoi street, apt. no. 12, a non-existent address.

Pharmacom Labs and SP Laboratories are two underground laboratories that appear to be related. Both their websites have a shared server: CloudFlare Inc., and are registered in San Francisco, USA, having the same ZIP code – 94107.

According to specialized websites that sell steroids, Pharmacom Labs was opened in Moldova in 2006. In 2014,  the ghost-company would have significantly modernized its production line, manufacturing preparations in modern packaging. About SP Laboratories, consumers of steroids on specialized forums say that its production is very similar to that of Balkan Pharmaceuticals. It is not known who is the owner of the clandestine factory. About Evolution Pharma it is believed to have appeared on the market last year and that it would have laboratories in the transnistrian region.