The former CEO of state's oil pipeline operator Janaf and a suspect in the Janaf corruption case, Dragan Kovacevic, was again arrested on Wednesday, together with another three suspects, for accepting bribes to fix jobs, a source close to the investigation told state agency Hina.

The police confirmed that the criminal investigation conducted by the police anti-corruption office PNUSKOK in cooperation with the USKOK anti-corruption office was under way.

“Several people have been arrested this morning on suspicion of committing crimes of corruption. For now, we cannot provide more details,” the Interior Ministry said.

In mid-December, former JANAF CEO Dragan Kovacevic said, after being released from three-month investigative detention, that he “hadn’t stolen a single penny” and that he would prove his innocence in court.

Kovacevic said then that the million euro found in his garage was the money of his business partners intended for the purchase of 250 hectares of land in Slavonia.

Speaking of his club in Zagreb’s Slovenska Street, which was frequented by many state officials and business people, Kovacevic said that it was not a club but an association called “Slavonska ravnica” (Slavonian plain), where people hailing from Slavonia used to gather.

USKOK suspects that Kovacevic received a bribe from Kreso Petek, the owner of the Elektro Petek company and main suspect, who allegedly bribed former Velika Gorica mayor and former Croatian Democratic Union MP, Drazen Barisic, and former Social Democratic Party MP and former Nova Gradiška mayor, Vinko Grgic, so that his company could land jobs worth millions.

USKOK has launched an investigation into 14 people accused of influence peddling, bribery, illegal favouring, abuse of office and powers, and aiding and abetting in said crimes.

In an expanded investigation, Kovacevic is additionally charged that he had received information that he would be arrested and that he had used the time until his arrest to hide 4.5 million kuna at Goran Puklin’s, who claims that the money is his. After Puklin was included in the investigation, his wife Mirela Aleric Puklin, requested to be dismissed from the post of deputy state attorney.