On Wednesday evening N1 television released exclusive transcripts of the deposition that former Economy Minister Martina Dalic's gave to Uskok, Croatia's anti-corruption police, in which she talked about the government's handling of the crisis at Agrokor.

The transcripts also include depositions given to investigators by Agrokor crisis manager Ante Ramljak, and one of Dalic’s advisor Zoran Besak.

The transcripts reveal a number of contentious points regarding the process through which Prime Minister Plenkovic’s government tried to handle the threat of bakruptcy at the food and retail group Agrokor, the largest single company in the country at the time.

After the depositions were made to USKOK investigators in February 2017, the state prosecutor’s office DORH dismissed formal charges filed against Dalic in June, by the opposition parties Zivi Zid and Slobodna Hrvatska, the suspicion of conflict of interest.

Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Martina Dalic handed in her resignation in May 2018 after news portal Index.hr had published e-mail correspondence between her and the consultants and lawyers who had worked on drafting the controversial Lex Agrokor bill in early 2017.

The law was passed in April that year, and it allowed the government to temporary take over the management of the indebted food and retail group Agrokor. Before the crisis at Agrokor developed, the company employed some 60,000 people in dozens of its subsidiaries across the region, with its annual revenue at around €7 billion, or almost 15 percent of Croatia’s GDP.

The total debt claims against Agrokor, from hundreds of creditors which include local banks, suppliers, and bondholders, were around 58 billion kuna (€7.8 billion), with the single largest creditor Russia’s Sberbank, which held a €1.1 billion claim.

*Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic knew about the meetings about Agrokor

“I must say that this meeting, and other meetings, took place with the full knowledge of Prime Minister (Andrej Plenkovic), his approval, and later reporting (to him),” Dalic told investigators.

“There were several meetings with the Prime Minister (Andrej Plenkovic), and with (Bozo) Petrov as leader of the Most party. (Davor) Bozinovic was also present, as head of Plenkovic’s office, Economy Minister Martina Dalic, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric. There were at least 5-8 meetings,” Zoran Besak told investigators.

*Finance Minister Zdravko Maric received a report on the state of affairs at Agrokor from company’s CEO and owner Ivica Todoric

“Apart from that, they (Agrokor) proposed other – in their opinion possible – ways the government could offer financial help, and while doing that they gave us a report on the state of things at the company, which (Zdravko) Maric received,” Dalic said.

*E-mail group of experts tasked with writing Lex Agrokor forms before consulting Todoric

“We considered who could be sent as representatives of HDZ in the future work group, so I suggested Tomislav Matic and Ante Ramljak… Zdravko Maric suggested Tonci Korunic… Regarding representatives of Most, I hereby state that Prime Minister Plenkovic called Bozo Petrov, leader of Most, and told him to propose candidates for the work group, and the next day Petrov sent me a text message, in which he suggested his candidates, Branimir Bricelj and Zoran Besak, and forwarded their contacts,” Dalic said.

*The “recusal” of Finance Minister Zdravko Maric

“When we worked on solving the problem of Agrokor, i.e. possible solutions to the crisis, there was no one from the company present. However, we used the opinions and information learned by Finance Minister Zdravko Maric, as he had been a long-time employee at Agrokor, so he spoke to us about possible reactions that Ivica Todoric might have to our proposals,” Besak told investigators.

*The working group analysed the state of Agrokor in 30 minutes

“…we had at our disposal publicly available data in the form of financial reports and very quickly, within half an hour, we performed an initial in-depth screening, and determined the huge financial problems at the company,” Besek said.

*Martina Dalic prevents media publication of report on the meetings

“The content of that meeting somehow found its way to the press, and I personally prevented its publication, considering that at the time the Finance Ministry was about to issue bonds on the one hand – and on the other, we had the threat of the largest company (in the country) collapsing,” Dalic said.

*Martina Dalic had the state’s financial agency Fina and the intelligence service SOA at her disposal

“As for keeping an eye on possible moves made by Ivica Todoric, I agreed with the head of Fina to monitor whether Todoric would formally file a request for pre-bankruptcy procedure, and to monitor for possible freezing of bank accounts belonging to the company. On March 22, 2017, at 14:25 he notified me that the first promissory notes for Konzum arrived…” Dalic said.

“We also asked the head of SOA to perform a background check of the persons I mentioned earlier… In the meantime, we received a report from SOA…” Dalic said.

*State-appointed administrator Ante Ramljak, before taking up any official role, attends meeting with Agrokor’s single largest creditor Sberbank

“…and with me, along with Bozinovic – and as was agreed with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic – the meeting was also attended by Ante Ramljak, because ‘there was nobody else’ – this was not Bozinovic’s area of expertise, and the others recused themselves…” Dalic said.

*Dalic also sent Ramljak to meet with another large Agrokor creditor, the Knighthead hedge fund

“Also, on March 30, 2017, I met with representatives of the Knighthead Capital management hedge fund, where I was sent by Deputy Prime Minister Martina Dalic,” Ramljak told investigators.

*Leadership of the ruling centre-right HDZ party knew about the plan

“A meeting was held at HDZ headquarters, attended by party president Plenkovic, along with Jandrokovic, Brkic, Bozinovic, Culjak, Butkovic, Maletic, Stier, and other prominent members of HDZ, i.e. the party leadership. Plenkovic then presented and explained the problem of Agrokor, as well as the technology used to solve that problem… After this meeting ended, I was phoned by HDZ Deputy President, Miljan Brkic, and told me I had political backing to solve this problem,” Dalic said.

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