A court in the eastern city of Osijek confirmed on Tuesday a new indictment filed by the Uskok anti-graft prosecutors against the already convicted former football mogul Zdravko Mamic.
The new charges, which involve Mamic and six other men, say that they had conspired to defraud Mamic’s Dinamo Zagreb football club of 200 million kuna (€27 million) in the nine-year period from late 2004 to late 2015.
Prosecutors claim that the funds were syphoned from the club through fraudulent contracts for fake transfer-related services, paid to several foreign-based shell companies.
The indictments includes charges against Mamic’s brother Zoran and his son Mamic, the club’s former top executive, Damir Vrbanovic, and football manager Nikky Vuksan.
This is the second indictment for embezzlement in which Mamic is a key defendant. In the first trial on similar charges for syphoning 116 million kuna (€16 million) from the club and tax evasion, Mamic was found guilty in June last year, and sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
Days before the sentencing, Mamic had fled to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and moved permanently to the Catholic pilgrimage town of Medjugorje where he openly lives today. As a dual citizen of Croatia and Bosnia, he successfully fought against Croatia’s extradition request which was finally rejected in January.
On Tuesday, Uskok deputy chief, Sven Miskovic, announced that the new indictment meant that Croatia would file another extradition request to Bosnia.
Failing that, Mamic would be tried in absentia. The preparatory court hearing will be held within the next two months, state agency Hina reported.
Mamic’s brother Zoran – a former football player turned coach – and former top club executive Vrbanovic were also tried and handed multi-year prison sentences in last year’s trial.
However, Croatian law allows defendants to continue exhausting appeals as free men as long as the original court sentence is no longer than five years. Their appeals are still pending.
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