Pandora's Papers: Vučić's godfather and Mali are also in the documents

Documents obtained by KRIK journalists as part of the international project "Pandora's Papers" prove that the Minister of Finance in the Government of Serbia, Siniša Mali, was the owner of 24 luxury apartments on the Bulgarian coast. As the owner of two offshore companies from the British Virgin Islands, Mali bought 23 apartments, and bought another one in his own name.

When in 2015 the journalists KRIK- and the journalist network OCCRP discovered that the then powerful mayor of Belgrade, Siniša Mali, bought 24 luxury apartments in the Bulgarian summer resort "Sveti Nikola" on the coast of the Black Sea, he was furious with the media. He accused KRIK journalists of lying.

"If you find that I am the owner of any of these apartments, they are all yours. You will get the key right away," he told KRIK journalists at an extraordinary conference he organized precisely for this research.

The revelation that Mali had bought these properties caused a stormy reaction in the public. Their value was around five million euros – many times more than Mali's legal income.

Mali admitted that he had bought an apartment, the one whose ownership was in his name. He claimed, however, that he was not behind the two offshore companies, Brigham Holding & Finance Inc. and Etham Invest & Finance Corp., which bought the remaining 23 apartments.

He did not report the companies and apartments to the Agency

Mali was the owner of these two offshore companies from the British Virgin Islands even after he became mayor of Belgrade. At that time, he was obliged by law to report the companies to the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, which he did not do. The law also prescribes prison sentences for officials who do not declare assets.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has been defending his close associate for years against suspicions that he is involved in corruption, also claiming that KRIK was lying.

"I have absolute confidence in Minister Siniša Malog," said Vučić earlier this year. "I will remind you of all the lies about him, about the 24 apartments in Bulgaria, the politicians who ran that campaign lied, the media lied."

Now, six years later, in the international project "Pandora's Papers" led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), leaked documents from the agency for the establishment of offshore companies "Trident Trust", of which Mali was a client, have appeared, which are proof that Mali was definitely the owner of two offshore companies and an apartment in Bulgaria.

Offshore purchases

The British Virgin Islands, the island nation in the Caribbean Sea where Mali founded companies, are considered a famous tax haven used by politicians, tycoons and criminals to hide assets. Thanks to the lack of transparency in this country, company owners can keep their identities a secret.

That's exactly what happened in this case. First, "Trident Trust" registered two offshore companies for Malog: "Brigham Holding & Finance Inc." and "Etham Invest & Finance Corp.", and they then bought two companies in Bulgaria - "Erma 11" and "Erul 11". - which owned apartments.

In documents on the purchase and sale of apartments, Mali was listed as the director of offshore companies from the British Virgin Islands, which is how KRIK journalists previously linked him to these properties.

New documents in the "Pandora Papers" project, certificates of ownership of companies, reveal that he was also the owner of these companies.

The purchase of apartments was carried out by Mali during 2012 and 2013, when he was the economic and financial advisor of the then First Vice-President of the Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić. In that position, Mali was in charge of negotiations with the United Arab Emirates regarding investments in capital projects - the privatization of the national airline "JAT" and the construction of "Belgrade on the Water".

The name of the person from whom Mali bought the apartments casts even more doubt on this deal.

An old acquaintance

Mali bought 24 apartments in Bulgaria from the company of Srdjan Dabić, former basketball player and director of the Serbian branch of the famous Russian oil company "Lukoil".

In the early 2000s, when he worked at the Privatization Agency, Siniša Mali, as director of the Tender Center, oversaw the privatization of the largest state-owned enterprises, and was responsible for the sale of the Serbian gas station chain "Beopetrol" to "Lukoil".

In that job, Mali represented the state of Serbia, while businessman Srđan Dabić represented the interests of Lukoil. Serbian pumps were sold to "Lukoil" in 2003 for 117 million euros.

The anti-corruption council later determined that "Lukoil" did not fulfill the contract and caused damage to "Beopetrol" of several million euros. Instead of investing in Serbian pumps, "Lukoil" extracted money by taking a loan of 105 million euros from "Beopetrol".

Suspicion of money laundering

Shortly after Mali bought the apartments in Bulgaria, which were worth about five million euros on the market, he started selling them. He sold two apartments, which are not among the largest, in 2013 and 2014 for a total of 120.000 euros.

Then he got out of ownership in offshore companies.

In August 2014, a few months after becoming mayor of Belgrade, Mali transferred the offshore company to local lawyer Ana Panajotova, who then sold several more apartments.

Although Mali was no longer officially the owner, he was still connected to the apartments – KRIK found his signature on a document from 2015. Namely, on behalf of the offshore company, Mali signed the decision on the submission of the financial report for its daughter company in Bulgaria in 2015.

Mali defended himself in public that his signature on this document was forged.

After a series of texts by KRIK about dubious affairs in which the mayor of Belgrade was involved, the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption also reacted. In the procedure initiated in 2015, the Agency confirmed KRIK's findings and found evidence indicating that Mali participated in money laundering. The agency forwarded the case to the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade.

The Prosecutor's Office also involved the Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering in the case, which it demanded to check all bank accounts and transactions of Siniša Malo and his family members. After the investigation, the Directorate compiled a report detailing several suspicious financial transactions linked to Mali, his ex-wife, as well as companies he owned or worked for. This institution established that Mali controlled at least 45 bank accounts and had money at his disposal that significantly exceeded his official income, as well as that the aforementioned Bulgarian lawyer, Ana Panayotova, was involved in a series of dubious transactions, some of which were related to the sale of the aforementioned apartments in Bulgaria the coast.

Despite these revelations, the High Prosecutor's Office suspended the proceedings, stating that it had found no evidence of criminal activity.

History of suspicious transactions

The "24 apartments" case is just one of the dubious deals in which Mali is involved, which were discovered by KRIK and OCCRP journalists. During the previous years, journalists also discovered that Mali illegally appropriated state land near Vršac, helped his father to privatize the wagon factory while he was working at the Privatization Agency, and that he goes on lavish trips that his official income cannot afford. KRIK journalists also interviewed his ex-wife, Marija Mali, who said that when he was mayor of Belgrade, he brought her cash of unknown origin and asked her to put it in her bank account. She also said that Mali boasted to her that he had organized the demolition in Savamala.

Then, in 2018, Vučić promoted Mali to the position of Minister of Finance – this move also brought Mali control over the Directorate for the Prevention of Money Laundering.

Since Mali has been a minister, several apartments in Bulgaria have been confiscated or frozen - by the bank and the local tax authorities.

The "Trident Trust" agency told journalists that they operate within the law and do not make statements about their clients. Panayiotova also did not want to comment. She said only: "I refuse to comment, there have already been too many scandals with this" and hung up.

Mali did not respond to the invitation of KRIK journalists for an interview, nor to the detailed questions they sent him.

Nikola Petrović, Vučić's godfather, is also in the documents

In the papers, when it comes to Serbia, Nikola Petrović, the godfather of President Aleksandar Vučić and director of "Electric Grid of Serbia" (EMS) in the period from September 2012 to the end of 2016, appears in the papers, writes N1.

The text of the OCCRP states that Petrović became the owner of the company from the British Virgin Islands, which was founded in 2016, through the Swiss consulting company "Fidinam and Alcogal".

It is stated that when establishing the company, Petrović did not inform Alcogal that he could be considered a politically exposed person, even though he is so close to the president, and this was also stated by his lawyer (that he is not a politically exposed person). However, after the formation of the company, Alcogal discovered his political position and requested a bank reference letter. The text goes on to say that the Swiss law firm rejected this request from the consultancy, offering to write a reference letter themselves, which Alcogal accepted.

Petrovic kept the company a secret from Serbian officials and never reported it, as required by law, the text further states that Petrovic did not answer the questions asked.