The Anti-Corruption Bureau USKOK filed charges on Monday against Jurica Lovrincevic, a special advisor to former Minister of Economy Davor Filipovic, for influence peddling in connection with the procurement of advertising space and the distribution of funds at Mreza TV.

Without naming the defendant or the broadcaster, USKOK said Lovrincevic was charged with criminal offences committed between October and 12 December 2023.

As a special adviser in the minister’s office and a member of the board of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, he allegedly “used the authority of his positions to ensure that funds from the state budget were used to provide a financial benefit to a person of his trust, with whom he was associated, by hiring a television station to advertise the Fund’s activities in such a way that part of the funds from this business were paid to the person of his trust on the basis of false documents.”

False business documents

In this context, Lovrincevic asked the fund to involve Mreza TV in an advertising campaign for its two projects for €90,000. Due to his position, the managers of the fund accepted this request without realising his true intentions, USKOK said.

Later, Lovrincevic, through a trusted person, asked the director of Mreza TV, citing his authority and the financial importance of the deal, to transfer part of the money that the Fund would pay for the services provided by the TV station on the basis of a false contract and an invoice for services that would never be provided, and to hand over the money in cash to his trusted person.

This person then hired a company to create false business documents necessary to transfer funds from the TV station’s account.

The former minister said he knew nothing

This company then entered into a contract with the TV station and on 28 November 2023, the TV station received an invoice from the company, although there was no basis for it, as the services listed in the invoice were never provided, USKOK said.

The media had previously reported that Lovrincevic arranged the advertising space and distribution of funds at Mreza TV with journalist Marin Vlahovic. They said Marko Ljubic, a presenter and editor working at the TV station at the time, had arranged the connection.

Ljubic replied that Vlahovic had lied and that no money had been shared.

After leaving his ministerial post, Filipovic said that he had not known about the public money that had flowed to the media, but that he had taken political responsibility.