The investigators are allegedly looking into the operation of the City Municipality of Ljubljana, the Ljubljanska parkirišča in tržnice public company, the Zavod Tivoli company and the Grep company.
The director of the National Bureau of Investigation Darko Majhenič said that the investigators had performed seven house searches due to the suspicion of corporate crime. The list of the persons under investigation includes the Slovenian Minister of Defense Roman Jakič, who had been scheduled to return from his visit in Moscow on Tuesday, but was not home upon the arrival of the investigators, since he had to stay in Russia due to airplane engine trouble.
The searches were performed on the basis of two suspicions of criminal acts: the first one being misuse of power or trust in economic activity, which is sanctioned with up to 8 years in prison, and the second being a suspicion of fraud in obtaining a loan or special privilege, sanctioned with up to a 3-year prison sentence. A Ljubljana based company supposedly suffered damages due to these criminal acts.
Majhenič explained that the investigation of the first criminal act is directed at a responsible authority in a public company from power industry. The suspect signed a deed of sale for the acquisition of premises hosting the central cooling engine room at Stožice, followed by an annex worth EUR 3 million. By doing so, says Majhenič, the suspect enabled unlawful financial gain to a private business company. He signed the contract and the annex with full knowledge that the purchase is unnecessary, since the use of the premises could be provided by the private company and the city municipality free of charge. What is more, the ownership of the area allocated to the engine room was not settled at the time.
The second criminal act was a false contract for putting parking and other areas up for rent, based on which the company obtained a EUR 150 million loan, although it did not meet the loan eligibility criteria – the false contract was signed with the sole purpose of obtaining the loan. Two responsible authorities – unofficially from the Grep company – allegedly received help from three responsible authorities in a public institution or company. Roman Jakič was the director of the Zavod Tivoli public institution at that period.
The National Bureau of Investigation detected indications of the above-mentioned criminal activity when investigating alleged crimes connected to the Stožice complex last year.
Two people released from detention
During the investigation two people had been detained – unofficially, Samo Lozej, the former director of the Ljubljanska parkirišča in tržnice public company, and Hrvoje Draškovič, the director of the Energetika Ljubljana company. Both were released in the late afternoon.
