I should have known what kind of guy it was when I slipped past the jeep through the narrow yard. What about the jeep? Tank. That monster costs several tens of thousands of euros. Either it is his, or one of his "business partners". This man was a judge until two years ago. And then he became a private entrepreneur in the field of judicial works - executor. It is known what is thought of executors in Serbia. On Dorćol, one of them threw an old woman and her seriously ill son out onto the street from an apartment worth 70.000 euros due to a debt of 6.000 euros. The apartment was sold for 28.000 euros. Someone close to the perpetrator? I could go on and on like this for a very long time. But I am not a prejudiced man. This man I'm going to interview should be paid to obey and enforce the law.
Sisters in arms
After a decade of futile attempts to come to an agreement with her sister about her mother's apartment, and after a court decision on the public sale of that apartment and the division of the money between the two of them - a verdict that slept soundly in a drawer of the local court - L. decided to launch an auction. And I, as a man on her side, follow and support her. We looked for a lawyer to represent her. And in the same building where the law office was, in a town in the south of Serbia, there was also an executor, a former judge.
The lawyer prepared us well. It was only necessary to pay 26.000 dinars to the executor's account. Then he will take care of everything. Today we go to him to find out what it is all about. The man looked a lot like the tabloid owner who keeps popping up in front of pro-government boulevard television cameras to tell brazen lies. But like I said, I'm not biased. It's not the man's fault that he looks like a moral freak.
The executor explained everything to us. Public sales are now called electronic auctions. It has been mandatory in Serbia since September of this year. Just log in to the site eAuction and follow the instructions. He didn't register, so he doesn't know how to explain it to us.
Why is an electronic auction mandatory? Somehow I'd rather see an uncle with a hammer - like in the movie - shouting: "First time, second time, sold!" The executor says that previously, in front of the live auction, suspicious types appeared, extorting money from the participants. If someone who wants to buy another half of his apartment, because he lives in it, and wants to avoid an excessive increase in the price at the public sale - then he has to pay the dubious guys not to participate in the public sale. The electronic auction prevents that, said the former judge and current private citizen.
Who is this man?
Before the meeting, I looked at a website that offers information about the business of private companies. Last year, during the pandemic, this judicial private company increased the number of employees sevenfold. Turnover reached half a million euros, and the company's capital remained - 220.000 euros. Our executor obviously cannot defend himself from execution. That's the answer to where the jeep in the yard came from. His or some of his paying customers. This is also the answer to the question of why executors do what they do - they perform rough work for the judiciary. It's worth it.
It's awkward that google he remembers everything. If I type the name of our executor, a text from a southern portal appears, among other things, in which it is said that the executor, in his former life as a judge, refused to stop the seizure of an apartment and its public sale. Even though the citizens who lived in the apartment for years had a proper sales contract and a court decision that the apartment belonged to them. Since the investors were fraudsters and sold the apartment several times, the tenants were kicked out of the apartment because the real owners are the investors. It seems that our executor, even in his former life as a judge, was on the side of his private future. But journalists write all kinds of things, you shouldn't believe everything that is published.
"It's very simple"
What the executor didn't tell us, but he had to: login to the portal eAuction is an operation that the average citizen of Serbia cannot perform without the help of experts for the digital world.
First, in order to participate in the auction, you must request an officially verified electronic signature. You go to the MUP and submit a request. Then they give you a confirmation and a handwritten code. An electronic signature means nothing to you without an ID card reader. You go to an electronics store. They don't have. You go to the other one. They don't have. You are on the phone with a third person. They have two more pieces. You go there, pay a few thousand and - you are the owner of an electronic ID card reader. Think it's over? Well, it's not. First you connect the reader to the computer, then you need to download the driver software for that reader from the Internet.
You did everything right. Now only yes on the site eAuction Ministry of Justice you see how the whole thing works.
Does it work? On the site, you will only find the "help" section at the very bottom after a long search. There you will find a tutorial. You will have to download two more software programs from that site, activate them, and connect them to the ID card reader. And when you do all that with a lot of brainstorming, you think it's over. It's not.
Serbian digitization
Now you need to register on the site eAuction. And that procedure will take some time and some nerves. The membership fee for one year, which gives you the right to participate in the auction, costs 2.000 dinars. Pay it to the said account. When you do not receive any confirmation for a while, you realize that something is not right. On the site eAuction you find, again after searching and deep thinking, the real reason. Your membership fee is not automatically active when someone there in Belgrade registers the payment. Their ear hurts. You must send an electronic copy of the payment to the site administrator. And when you do, you wait again. Only when you send him an email warning him that it will be his fault if you miss the auction for your own apartment, the administrator sends a confirmation that he has activated your membership.
The executor, to whom we complained on the phone about the tedious and complicated access procedure, said that the matter is simple. He will take a look at it all at the weekend, so he will get back to us. He never mentioned it again.
One more thing the executor failed to say. That immediately after our first conversation, the auction of the apartment will be announced on the website of the Chamber of Public Executors. The Conclusion will also be published, where L. will find his name, surname JMBG and address. I am really interested in whether this publication of very personal data is in accordance with the Law on the Protection of Personal Data.
Anyway, the publication of that data was an instruction for those "suspicious types" whose appearance at the auction, according to the executor, is prevented by the mandatory electronic auction. Then they don't show up at the auction. They just show up at your door.
Suitability at the door
Although in the Conclusion on the first electronic public bidding, which was signed by the executor, it is clearly written that a tour of the apartment offered for public sale is possible only on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 13 p.m. - with prior telephone agreement - the guy showed up unannounced, around six in the evening.
Onizak, with too long, ugly tattooed arms that disappeared under a tight T-shirt, a gold chain around his wiry neck. Eyes too close together. Robbie hairstyle.
I open it and ask what he wants. With him is a woman of his age, who is a bit shy. Maybe it's because I'm in my underpants.
Well, he stopped by to see the apartment. Does he know that he has to talk to the executor beforehand, to arrange an appointment with us? So he talked to the executor, and the latter said to come by. If we don't let him go, then the bailiff will intervene.
I told him to report to the bailiff and closed the door.
The executor's assistant calls us the next day. In a somewhat annoyed voice, he says that we have to receive parties who are interested in the apartment. I told her to stick to the legal appointment on weekdays. To let us know in time. For the party to announce himself by phone. And to bring an ID card. We want the bailiff's office to send the ID number of the man who can enter the apartment.
Then the humanoid party called on the phone. He began in his rural dialect to raise the tension in the conversation. He has money. He's going to raise the price. He did a hundred such apartments. I referred him to the executor again. Let him leave his ID information, and then he will be able to enter to see the apartment.
The executor's assistant called again. The nervousness in her voice was even more audible. She said that we have to let the party into the apartment, otherwise she will come with the police. Great, I said, since the party looks like a criminal, the police would make an excellent escort. For the third time, the tattooed man did everything we asked of him. He wanted to enter the apartment again with his wife. We didn't allow it. He left information only about himself with the executor. He finished inspecting the possible prey in five minutes and left.
Video of attempted extortion
That same evening, L. received a message on her cell phone: "Well, it could have been done without this. I just wanted to make an agreement".
I called him the next day and turned on the recorder.
- You told L. that you want to make an agreement?
- I'm not really interested in the apartment.
- Then why are you looking at him?
- I can not participate in the auction. That would be good for you. That no one raises the price. Ask around, I work with executors. I have done more than a hundred apartments.
He mentioned several names.
- Yeah. And that would cost me something?
- But of course. But let's meet to drink coffee and finish everything.
- However, I do not know. Maybe. But tell me how much it would cost, so I don't come for nothing if it's expensive.
- Two thousand euros.
- Yeah. Good. Let me think. I'll be in touch on Monday.
I delivered the video to the lawyer, who was horrified. I invited an acquaintance in Belgrade who works in the department for organized crime. He said that he could put me in touch with colleagues - but I would have to be ready to hand over the marked banknotes to the extortionist, after the handover the police would arrest him.
I didn't like the idea of acting as bait for the police and then having them hand me over to the court where the judge was until recently my executor. In agreement with the lawyer, I invited the humanoid criminal.
I told him that I had recorded our conversation and that the entire law firm and an organized crime inspector had heard it. After a few seconds of tense silence, he said that he would not participate in the auction.
He called me on the phone in the afternoon. He said that he had been to three of the best lawyers, that my criminal complaint would not have been successful, that he was not blackmailing or racketeering us, that he was only offering a service. That he can pay a guest worker who will participate, and then go abroad and - what can I do to him. That I blackmail him.
I told him he was a free man, let him do what he had to do. And that I will do what I have to do. Then he began to beg me, to mention the children, God, he is a believer, where is my soul, how can I do it. This part was fun. A criminal who calls God as a witness. In the end, he said again that he would not participate in the auction. I told him that I was pleased with his sudden change of attitude. But that I will make the decision, whether I will prosecute him, independently of that, after the auction.
"Don't get me involved"
After ten days, a chubby little man with an even thicker gold chain around his neck appeared at the door. This one was condescending, he apologized many times. He would help. Some people don't even know that their apartment is advertised. And a friend from Nis told him to come by. I said that there is no viewing of the apartment without prior notice to the executor. He became even more condescending, almost leaving a slimy trail behind him. I asked him what he really wanted. He said - nothing. And he left. Apologizing.
The auction was delayed for two weeks because the local judiciary made a procedural error - it did not correctly calculate the number of days prescribed for advertising the auction. Sloppyness in action. By the time of the new appointment, no one appeared at the door again.
We were the only participants in the auction.
Oh, yes. When I complained to the executor on the phone that criminals were coming to my door and trying to extort money, and asked him how he intended to protect the legality of the auction under those conditions, he almost angrily exclaimed: "Don't involve me in it." I am not a man who harbors prejudices against the rickety judiciary or its profitable, privatized part. But I also recorded that conversation just in case.
Bonus video:
