The Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) on Saturday evening stated that based on a police report, it launched an investigation of two persons on suspicion of abuse of office and that another four suspects in the case are accused of incitement to the offence.

USKOK did not reveal the identities of the six suspects, however, earlier in the day media outlets reported that the suspects are Construction Minister Darko Horvat, his former aide Ana Mandac, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Boris Milošević, the Regional Development Ministry’s state secretary Velimir Žunac, the director of the administration for assisted areas, Katica Miskovic and former minister Tomislav Tolusic.

According to USKOK’s statement, in his previous capacity as economy minister, Horvat is believed to have okayed the disbursement of grants in the amount of HRK 2.6 million (€347,000) to some businesses ineligible for that aid, from November 2018 to the end of 2018, at the urging of Tolusic, Milosevic, Zunac and Miskovic.

The prosecution alleges that to that end, Minister Horvat had also requested that the finance ministry give its consent for the redistribution of the funds under the 2018 scheme for the development of SMEs and crafts in areas populated by ethnic minorities.

USKOK claims that Horvat authorised his aide Mandac to implement the disbursement of the subsidies concerned, although both Horvat and Mandac were aware that the businesses that would be given the grants in that way had not fulfilled the eligibility criteria.

USKOK alleges that Horvat and the other suspects were connected by interest or personally with some of those companies not eligible for the aid.

Upon his arrest earlier today, Horvat denied all the accusations, including abuse of office.

Mandac was relieved of her duties as soon as she was suspected in an earlier case of abuse of office dubbed “wind park”, which implicates former state secretary Josipa Rimac. That scandal broke in May 2020.

Tolusic stepped down as agriculture minister in July 2019. At the time, the then Regional Development and EU Funds Minister Gabrijela Zalac also resigned. Zalac is one of the suspects in the wind park scandal.