Zvonko Veselinović sails on Svetozar Marović's yacht

This spring, BIRN journalists managed to find the yacht "Sara" at the dock of a small and remote marina in the Bay of Kotor near Tivat, while she was waiting for her turn for final preparations and seasonal service.

The story of the fate of this yacht, which used to be called "Kenco", and which changed three owners in a short period of time, is actually a story of the connection between politics, business and crime and their joint affairs hidden from the public eye.

It all started in 2008 when Svetozar Marović, the former president of Serbia and Montenegro, became the owner of a luxurious yacht 30 meters long and worth 8,9 million euros, which was built in the famous Italian shipyard Ferretti.

Together with his son Miloš, Marović buys the boat on lease through the Austrian Hypo Alpe Adrija Bank, and the operation was carried out through the offshore company Galaksi Grup registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, according to the documentation available to BIRN.

When he fled from Montenegro to Serbia in 2016, Svetozar Marović managed to avoid the prison sentence he was sentenced to for corruption, but he could not get rid of the debt to an Austrian bank of almost nine million euros for the purchase of a luxury yacht.

A year later, in 2017, the Novi Sad company Južna Bačka enters into an agreement with the Austrian company Heta Leasing, which is the legal successor of Hipo Alpe Adria Bank, and takes over the ship for only 1,3 million euros.

Yacht currently in Greece

Južna Bačka came into the public spotlight at the beginning of 2015 after a series of articles by BIRN in which it was revealed that they had received the job of pumping water from the submerged Tamnav mine, as well as that the owner of the company, Dragoljub Zbiljić, was the sole guarantor of a loan of 55 million dinars for SNS for the 2012 elections

A few days after they bought the yacht, Južna Bačka sold the boat for the same price to the company Inkop, owned by Zvonko Veselinović and Milan Radoičić, two godfathers from Kosovo close to SNS, who are linked to many criminal activities.

In the original indictment for the murder of Oliver Ivanovic, Milan Radoičić and Zvonko Veselinović were designated as organizers of a criminal group that assisted in the crime, although they were not named as defendants, although their names are mentioned dozens of times in the document.

Back in 2014, while BIRN journalists were working on the story about the draining of water from Tamnava, they repeatedly received well-intentioned and sincere advice that it was a "dangerous story" and that, according to the knowledge of people in the business, Zbiljić was only formally running the company Južna Bačka , and that the man pulling the strings is actually Zvonko Veselinović.

The purchase of a yacht from Heta, in the name and for the needs of Veselinović's Inkop, can indeed lead to the conclusion that Veselinović has an influence on the operations of the Novi Sad company, a source from the Novi Sad police, who wished to remain anonymous, told BIRN.

BIRN's source explains that Veselinović is coming to Novi Sad in late 2013, early 2014, primarily for political reasons, in order to help the Serbian Progressive Party take over the provincial government from the Democratic Party.

BIRN already reported on the close ties between Veselinović and the ruling party, when a photo of him from the SNS pre-election headquarters with the brother of the President of Serbia, Andrej Vučić, was published.

After that, says the source, Veselinović started taking on big jobs in Novi Sad.

"Zvonko Veselinović brought this scheme of hidden ownership to Novi Sad, from various cafes to Južna Bačka," says BIRN's source from the Novi Sad police.

Given that the radar was turned off on Zvonko Veselinović's yacht, it was not possible to track it through the available ship monitoring sites. BIRN, however, learns that the yacht did not sail in the Montenegrin sea this summer, but that it is in Greece. BIRN also learns that this may be the last summer that Veselinović and Radoičić ride this yacht, since they allegedly put it up for sale.

Yacht route from Montenegro to Serbia

According to the available specifications of the yacht manufacturer Fereti, the model of the boat, which was bought by Svetozar Marović for 2008 million euros in 8.9 through Hipo Alpe Adria Bank, and which Veselinović and Radoičić drive today, has five cabins for guests, plus accommodation for the crew.

According to the Montenegrin media, the Marovićs did not enjoy the comfort of the yacht and drove it, but mostly used it for renting. According to available data from companies that rent yachts and ships, the price of a weekly rental of this model goes over 60.000 dollars.

Due to non-payment of installments, Hipo banka terminated the contract in 2011 and demanded EUR 8,9 million from the former president of Serbia and Montenegro. Four years later, in 2015, the bank filed a lawsuit before the Basic Court in Kotor to collect the claims.

One of the Belgrade lawyers who represented the banks in similar court proceedings and who wished to remain anonymous, told BIRN that it is not clear why Hipo banka did not activate earlier the promissory notes signed by the Marovićs as guarantees for debt collection, even though they had not paid their obligations for years. .

After the arrest of Svetozar and Miloš Marović and the verdict for corruption in 2016 before the High Court in Podgorica, the two fled to Serbia and avoided serving a prison sentence. The term for serving the sentence has expired for the younger Marović, and Svetozar Marović is still awaiting a year and ten months in prison.

"There is no reason other than a political one why the Marovićs were not extradited," Dejan Milovac from the Montenegrin MANS, an organization that investigates corruption and organized crime, told BIRN.

He adds that the financial investigation in the Marović case was not fully conducted because the prosecution did not examine all his assets and the yacht was never confiscated, which should have been the case.

"The whole sequence of events only confirms huge suspicions that there was a previous agreement between Marović, the then Montenegrin authorities and the Serbian state to hide Marović in Serbia," says Milovac.

The bank abandons the prosecution of Marović

One year later, in July 2017, Heta Leasing, as the legal successor of Hipo banka, renounces the claim, that is, it renounces the prosecution of Marović, which was confirmed to BIRN in the court in Kotor.

The abandonment of the lawsuit on July 21, 2017 was preceded by a settlement on May 31, 2017, reached by Heta Leasing and the company Južna Bačka from Novi Sad.

BIRN obtained documentation showing that Heta Leasing agreed to the offer of Juzna Bačka of 1,3 million euros for the Marović family's debt of 8,9 million.

When asked by BIRN why they agreed to such a reduced amount, the Austrian bank initially did not want to answer, but after a repeated question, an answer arrived saying that this agreement was carried out in accordance with the internal procedure, as well as that external ratings for price confirmation.

"Furthermore, you appear to be comparing values ​​from 2008 to 2017 without considering the condition of the property at the time or the encumbrances associated with the yacht," the written response said.

The others are silent on calls

Južna Bačka and Inkop did not want to answer BIRN's questions regarding the sale of the ship, while Heta Leasing, as the legal successor of Hipo Alpe Adria Bank, threatened to file a lawsuit if we published the details of their business.

The Marovics also remained silent on our calls. Svetozar and his son Miloš today enjoy the protection of the Serbian state, which does not respond even after several official extradition requests sent from Montenegro. They live in Vračar and deal with lucrative businesses that they started in Serbia, which BIRN wrote about.

The Government of Montenegro has repeatedly sent requests to the Government of Serbia for the extradition of Svetozar Marović, but until now the Serbian side has remained deaf to these requests.

The Ministry of Justice of Serbia did not answer BIRN's questions about why it is not acting on requests for the extradition of Svetozar Marović.

It is obvious that Heta was satisfied to collect anything from the debt, that it suited Marović to take the debt off his neck and that Južna Bačka bargained for a nine-year-old yacht for 1,3 million euros.

Of course, depreciation and other costs should also be taken into account, but today, five years later, yachts of that type and year are sold for three million euros.

However, Južna Bačka does not keep the ship for a few days and immediately sells it to the Inkop company owned by Zvonk Veselinović and Milan Radoičić. And for the same amount for which they bought it.

In addition to the EUR 1,3 million debt to Heta, Južna Bačka also settles the EUR 100.000 debt to the marina in Corfu where the yacht was tied up.

Južna Bačka did not answer BIRN's questions about why it relieved the debt by buying Svetozar Marović's yacht, and then sold the yacht to the Inkop company for the same amount.

Nor did Inkop answer the question for which business purposes he bought the yacht.

Neither Južna Bačka nor Inkop answered BIRN's questions about whether someone from the state administration or from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party mediated this arrangement.

BIRN has written on several occasions about the lucrative business of Zvonko Veselinović and Milan Radoičić, primarily in the field of construction, as well as their close ties with Andrej Vučić, the brother of the Serbian president.

Južna Bačka: Via SNS, to Veselinović

"BIRN, these are the ones who received money from... the EU to say something against the Government of Serbia. Tell those liars that they lied again", these were the words of then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić on January 9, 2015, when he commented on BIRN's research on the pumping out of water from the submerged Tamnava mine, which was carried out by Južna Bačka.

BIRN showed in the research that the pumping job was won by a company without any experience in similar jobs. The pumping was waited for four months in order to call for a tender, even though the situation required urgency. Thus, more than 120 million euros were spent on the import of electricity, which was normally produced from the coal of the Tamnava mine.

Meanwhile, BIRN also announced that the current owner of Južna Bačka Dragoljub Zbiljić was the sole guarantor of a loan of 55 million dinars for SNS for the 2012 elections. At that moment, Zbiljić was the owner of a small company for the purchase and processing of raw materials and was accused as an accomplice of an organized group for evasion and money laundering.

In the elections of 2012, SNS won power, and a year later Zbiljić became the owner of Južna Bačka, even then a large and significant company in the field of energy. Since the Serbian Progressive Party came to power, South Bačka has increased its income eight times.

In 2020, Zbiljić also became the owner of Elektromontaza from Kraljevo, the second largest company from the energy sector in Serbia. Together, these two companies receive by far the largest share of jobs and tenders issued by the Electric Power Company of Serbia. Research by BIRN has shown that the largest part of the income of these two companies is generated exclusively in business with the state. At the same time, there is almost no competition in the tenders they win.