The Croatian Bar Association (HOK) officially launched disciplinary procedure against its members Tin Dolicki, Boris Savoric, and Toni Smrcek, on suspicion of conflict of interest related to their involvement in the restructuring of Agrokor and the drafting of the Lex Agrokor bill.

Against Savoric – the lawyer mentioned in the e-mail scandal that led former Economy Minister Martina Dalic to resign last week – an additional reason cited by HOK was suspicion of violation of attorney-client privilege because the e-mails leaked in the so-called Hotmail affair showed he had passed on confidential information belonging to Russia’s VTB bank to other members of the mailing group, HOK reported on Tuesday.

The e-mail scandal, which started last week after website Index.hr published Dalic’s private correspondence, revealed that consultants and lawyers from the private sector had worked in early 2017 on drafting the controversial piece of legislation on state-appointed emergency administration at the indebted food and retail group Agrokor without the knowledge of the wider public.

The law, dubbed Lex Agrokor in the media, was designed to introduce state-appointed emergency management at the privately-owned company, as its bankruptcy would have put in jeopardy some 60,000 jobs across the region and the entire Croatian economy.

The procedure against Dolicki was launched due to suspicion of conflict of interest as he had represented the Knighthead hedge fund in Agrokor’s creditors’ council, while at the same time working at Agrokor as a consultant. Savoric and his former partner Smrcek are accused of working at the same time for the VTB bank and on drafting the Lex Agrokor bill.

Russian banks Sberbank and VTB are Agrokor’s largest single creditors, with claims of €1.1 billion and €300 million respectively.

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