Croatian Olympic Committee official Šegota arrested

In a new operation by the Office for Prevention of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK), the director of the Olympic program of the Croatian Olympic Committee, Damir Šegota, and his wife were arrested. The home and office of the Secretary General of the Olympic Committee, Siniša Krajač, are also being searched. The case is connected to a major corruption scandal in the Croatian Ski Association.

Investigators suspect that the former director of the Croatian Ski Association, Vedran Pavlek paid Damir Šegota at least 160,000 euros in bribes over a period of ten years. He allegedly also paid a student scholarship to one of his family members, and investigators also suspect that Šegota and his wife used the bribe money to buy investment gold. It is suspected that Pavlek paid Šegota so that he, as one of the leading figures in the Olympic Committee, could use his influence to enable the Croatian Ski Association to receive unjustifiably high funds. 

In addition to the arrest of Šegota and his wife, the home and workplace of Siniša Krajač, Head Secretary of the Croatian Olympic Committee, are being searched. He, however, says that he is only a witness in the case and that he does not fear arrest.

“I'm in the role of a witness, the police have their investigations and what you read in the media and what you know from before are still the same now. I wouldn't comment anything further because investigations are underway and it's difficult to say anything else,” he said.  

Asked if this would jeopardize the upcoming elections for the new head of the Croatian Olympic Committee, Krajač said “It is up to us to technically enable those elections, for them to have legitimacy and that they are conducted in accordance with all rules and regulations of the institute of the Croatian Olympic Committee.” 

The Minister of Tourism and Sports Tonči Glavina condemned, as he says, any corrupt act that violates the integrity of sports.

“These alleged corruptive actions have a clear name and last name, and from the very start of this affair in the Croatian Ski Association we emphasized that it is in the highest possible interest to thoroughly investigate all of this and eventually sanction those guilty,” said Glavina.  

If the suspicions prove to be correct, Glavina announced what should come next.

“We as the ministry and government will absolutely not, and cannot tolerate this. If all of this proves to be true, it is unequivocally necessary to conduct a fundamental reconstruction of the Croatian Olympic Committee, and the role of the Croatian Olympic Committee, in terms of allocating funds to the sports system and supervision, must be fundamentally redefined,” he added. 

The arrests came a day after the media reported that former Head Secretary of the Croatian Ski Association Damir Raos had recently supplemented his defense, and a day after Chief State Attorney Ivan Turudić, while appearing on Croatian Television, hinted that there would be more proceedings and possible arrests as part of the investigation into the Ski Association.

“There will be proceedings, we are conducting inquiries and conducting investigations in the Ski Association, so we'll see where all of this takes us depending on the evidence we find. It should be noted that in Mr. Pavlek's laptop 120 thousand documents were found; reading and analyzing them is a huge job,” said Turudić. 

As a reminder, back in March, USKOK opened an investigation into the suspected embezzlement of around 30 million euros from the Croatian Ski Association, for which a total of six people are suspected, led by the currently fugitive Pavlek, who is in an extradition prison in Kazakhstan.

Source: HRT