The Uskok anti-corruption office has expanded its investigation into illegal gas sales in Ina against former executive Damir Skugor, his deputy Stjepan Leko, entrepreneur Goran Husic and the director of the EVN Croatia Plin company, Vlado Mandic, for additional damage to Ina of 3.5 million kuna.

The prosecutor’s office, which has requested that Leko and Mandić be remanded in custody, said on Tuesday that the four are suspected of abuse of trust in business operations, aiding and abetting in that crime as part of a criminal enterprise, and money laundering.

Leko and Mandic were arrested on Monday as part of the gas resale scam, for which Skugor, his father Dane, the head of the Croatian Bar Association (HOK) Josip Surjak, his business partner Husic and the former director of Plinara Istocne Slavonje (PIS) gas company, Marija Ratkic, were previously arrested.

Backdated offers to buy gas at extremely low prices

The previously arrested five are suspected of defrauding Ina for more than 1 billion kuna (€133 million) by buying gas from Ina for €19.5 and then reselling it for as much as €210. Skugor and Husic are still in custody, while the others have been released.

Uskok and the police, without revealing their identities, reported that in the continuation of the investigation they suspect Skugor, when selling gas to a buyer at a preferential price at a time when the gas price increased considerably, agreed with Leko, Husic and Ratkic to backdate queries about offers as well as offers for buying extremely low prices.

In that way, they showed that an agreement was reached in December 2020, although it was actually reached shortly before the first gas delivery in July 2021, while an agreement with Mandic’s company was reached in November 2021.

That establishes the suspicion that Leko had abused trust in business operations as part of a criminal enterprise, according to the police and Uskok.

Investigators suspect that Husic, after an agreement with Skugor, obtained a license to trade in gas for his company OMS. Then Leko, Skugor, his father, Surjak and Ratkic made backdated queries and terms, although such an agreement was actually reached when gas prices on the market had risen so much that considerable profit was guaranteed.

The police say that Leko thereby violated the legal duty to protect other people’s property interests and obtained illegal gains for himself and others, causing damage to those whose property interests he was obliged to take care of.

Conditions created for further damage of several million

The police and the prosecutor’s office suspect that Skugor and Leko continuously favoured Mandic’s company EVN Croatia Plin from August 2021 by backdating commercial conditions when gas prices on the reference gas exchange were lower than the prices on the day of the actual offers.

Then Mandic backdated the accepted offers, after which he, Skugor and Leko signed gas sale contracts, according to the police and the prosecutor, who suspect that Husic was also involved.

According to Uskok and the police, Skugor and Leko prepared and signed a contract on the sale of Ina’s gas for the period from October 2022 to September 2024 with Mandic’s company, Mandic signed the contract at Skugor’s request and, as instructed by Skugor, agreed with Husic the transfer of the quantity contracted to his company.

In doing so, they allegedly caused damage in excess of €450,000 (3.5 million kuna) and at the same time created the conditions for the execution of the contract which would have caused further damage to Ina in millions of kuna.

Husic also suspected of repeated money laundering

Uskok and police underlined that Husic is also suspected of money laundering in order to hide the origin of the money obtained through the gas embezzlement.

Husic is suspected of transferring money from the account of his OMS company to the account of his other company, which he then used for legal affairs and the purchase of real estate.

The investigators suspect that Husic transferred at least 6.8 million kuna as loans to one of his companies and that he invested half a million kuna on behalf of the same company in Nova Gradiska to buy real estate. In addition, Husic is suspected of paying 6.5 million kuna from that company’s account to repay loans.

Husic is also suspected of having transferred at least 14 million kuna from the account of OMS to his other company. Investigators suspect that he laundered that money, too, and that later he returned more than 350,000 kuna into the account of OMS.

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)