The government on Tuesday dismissed allegations by the RTL broadcaster about MOL executive Zsolt Hernadi having been involved in negotiations between the Croatian government and MOL about the possible buyback of MOL's shares in INA.

The government’s statement was a response to an interview with Hernadi broadcast by RTL last Friday.

Hernadi was convicted and given two years in prison for giving former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader a €10 million bribe in exchange for securing for MOL a controlling interest in INA.

The final ruling against Hernadi was upheld by Croatia’s Supreme Court, however, he is beyond the reach of the Croatian judiciary and does not recognise its rulings.

The government today dismissed the claim that Hernadi had taken part in the talks about the possible buyback of MOL’s current stake in the leading Croatian oil and gas group.

The government recalls that the talks had been conducted by the then Economy Minister Tomislav Coric and MOL’s Chief Executive Officer Jozsef Molnar, and that representatives of the Lazard financial advisory and asset management firm, hired by Zagreb in 2019, also participated in the talks.

Upon the hiring of Lazard, due diligence of INA was launched.

In the summer of 2020, Lazard presented its report with an estimate of INA’s value.

The government noted that more concrete data on the value of INA could not be specified given that INA is a listed company on the Zagreb Stock Exchange (ZSE).

They also added that several rounds of negotiations had been conducted in November and December 2020 between Molnar and Croatia’s officials on plans to buy back MOL’s stake.

The Croatian Constitutional Court recently rejected Hernadi’s complaint against a Supreme Court ruling that dismissed his appeal and upheld the Zagreb County Court ruling sentencing him to two years in prison for bribing former Croatian PM Sanader.