Office for Prevention of Corruption launches investigation against Šegon and Kralj

The Office for Prevention of Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK) has launched an investigation against Branko Šegon, former assistant to the Minister of Finance Slavko Linić, and Tihomir Kralj, former deputy director of the Tax Administration, on suspicion that they requested 500,000 euros from Zdravko Mamić in exchange for assistance in concluding court proceedings in his favor.

The prosecution, without specifying their identities, reported that it launched an investigation based on independent investigations into Branko Šegon and Tihomir Kralj, whom they suspect of the criminal offense of trading in influence.

USKOK suspects that from September 14 to October 8, 2020, in Zagreb and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Šegon and Kralj requested 500,000 euros from Zdravko Mamić, against whom two criminal proceedings were ongoing before the Osijek County Court, as compensation so that the criminal proceedings against him would be concluded in his favor in any case.

In the first case, a first-instance verdict was issued, finding Zdravko Mamić guilty of breach of trust in business transactions and sentencing him to a single prison sentence of six and a half years, with the verdict currently under appeal before the Supreme Court.

In the second case, the main hearing was to begin at the time on the confirmed USKOK indictment charging Zdravko Mamić with committing criminal acts of criminal association and breach of trust in business transactions committed as part of a criminal association.

USKOK states that Šegon and Kralj offered Mamić, as a counter-service, that they would ensure the termination of the criminal proceedings in his favor, using their authority based on their many years of holding high positions in the Ministry of Finance, whose services were involved in the proceedings to clarify the circumstances of the disputed events for which the prosecution initiated criminal proceedings against Mamić, "as well as his connection with a deputy chief state attorney and a former minister of finance".

However, Mamić refused the offer, USKOK points out.

In February this year, Zdravko Mamić publicly accused Šegon and Kralj in Mostar of offering help in exchange for half a million euros, stating that they had met with him three times in a restaurant in Ljubuški.

Linić dismissed after HBOR gave Šegon loans

“Everything is packed for you, our services packed it, we have the support of Bajić and Linić and we are ready to release you, but you have to give us 500,000 euros. This is the first time someone has asked me for money and I have not given it,” Mamić said at the time.

“I said no problem, but I will not give it in advance. But after the third time we met and I did not give it to them, they gave up. A new lawyer comes and who enters his office on the first working day: Šegon, Linić and Kralj, and that's where I stop,” said Mamić.

Speaking of the meeting on the first working day, he was referring to the already well-known meeting of Šegon, Slavko Linić and Kralj with the new Chief State Attorney Ivan Turudić. After it became known about that meeting, Turudić confirmed that he had received Linić, Šegon and Kralj at their initiative.

“The topic of the conversation was the status of criminal charges that some of them had filed in the period from 2011 to 2016. After they were informed about the outcome of the criminal charges, that is, about the decisions made by the state attorney, the conversation ended, Turudić stated at the time, not wanting to go into details.

USKOK then announced that it would check Mamic's claims. Previously, Mamic had first made accusations against Osijek judges, to whom he had, as he himself stated, given bribes, in the media, and then officially repeated them to USKOK investigators.

Slavko Linić was the mayor of Rijeka in the 1990s, and then deputy prime minister under Ivica Račan (Social Democratic Party). He was the minister of finance in Zoran Milanović's Social Democratic Party government, but Milanović dismissed him in May 2014 due to disagreements. He was then expelled from the Social Democratic Party.

In addition to fiscalization, his term was also marked by the introduction of pre-bankruptcy settlements, and according to media reports, the argument for Linić's dismissal by Milanović was the overvalued purchase of land that the state took over in the case of the pre-bankruptcy settlement of the Spačva Company.

A complaint was filed against Linić due to this affair, but USKOK concluded that there were no elements of a criminal offense because the decisions, although illogical and to the detriment of the state budget, were made legally.

Branko Šegon was Linić's assistant in Milanović's government, and he was dismissed in February 2014 after it was discovered that Šegon's company had received a loan from the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) while he was in office.

Tihomir Kralj was assistant to the head of the Tax Administration, Nada Čavlović Smiljanec, who was sentenced to one year in prison in December 2022 for delaying the collection of a tax debt from Osijek entrepreneur Željko Biloš.

Source: HRT