Frane Barbaric, who has served as the chairman of the management board of the HEP power company since 2018, is under probe for suspected corruption and bribery, the Jutarnji List daily reported in its Friday edition.

According to Jutarnji List, the USKOK anti-corruption office opened an inquiry more than a year ago which has in the meantime been extended to include other cases.

USKOK is pursuing at least three lines of inquiry in which the HEP chief and deputy leader of the Zagreb branch of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) is the main suspect, the daily says.

USKOK is looking into cases related to gas trade, sales of surplus gas below market prices, the illegal construction of a villa on the southern island of Hvar and business deals on the island involving companies from the HEP group.

The State Inspectorate has ordered Barbaric to knock down an illegally built extension on a plot of farmland on Hvar and fined him for not doing it.

Investigators suspect that HEP-ODS paid the Fjord company, which extended Barbaric’s villa, for work not done. They are also checking if the construction of a power substation in the bay of Vela Stiniva was justified or it was done for Barbaric.