Coastal city of Zadar businessman Reno Sinovcic was on Friday sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for siphoning money from a local media outlet and a local football club, and two co-defendants, Dalibor Zebic and Novica Erlic, were also found guilty by Zadar County Court and given 10 and 11 months respectively.

Zebic and Erlic, former directors of the Zadar football club, are offered a possibility to serve community service instead of prison time.

The remaining co-defendants — former Zadar Tax Authority head Vjekoslav Jurlina, Jurlina’s successor Stoja Mucaja, tax officials Zeljan Pejkovic, Marko Lozancic and Irena Anic — were cleared of the charges.

The indictment against Sinovcic, Zebic and Erlic, who is the father of the incumbent EU funds minister Sime Erlic, and the remaining five defendants was issued on late 2015 by the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) and upheld in 2017.

USKOK alleged that more than €16 million was siphoned in pre-bankruptcy proceedings for Sinovcic’s VOX media outlet and the Zadar football club.

Sinovcic is known as a former referee, owner of several local media outlets (VOX TV, Vox weekly and the Zadarski Regional paper) as well as as a former member of the Zadar City Council to which he was elected as the head of an independent slate which he established after leaving the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

Some twenty years ago Sinovcic was on the list of the richest Croats. He was called the ‘Adriatic king of fish’ and described as a referee with great influence in the Croatian Football Federation. Media have also linked him with the rigging of football matches.