Former Agrokor management member Tomislav Lučić and former Agrokor directors Alojz Pandžić and Marijan Alagušić pleaded guilty on Thursday for their misdeeds in the affair known as the “big Agrokor” affair and settled with the prosecutor’s office at the Zagreb County Court in exchange for lighter sentences.
At the session of the indictment panel, Lučić was unanimously sentenced to a single conditional sentence of 11 months in prison with a probationary period of four years. In addition, he was also fined 50,000 euros, and must pay 40,000 euros in court costs.
He admitted his guilt and settled with the prosecutor’s office and Alojzije Pandžić. He was sentenced to a single sentence of nine months in prison with a probation period of four years. He also has to pay about 50,000 euros in court costs. As he waived his right to appeal, the verdict immediately became final.
Also, Marijan Alagušić admitted his guilt and, based on the agreement, he was sentenced to a suspended sentence of nine months in prison with a probationary period of four years. In addition, Alagušić must also pay court costs.
The County Court in Zagreb has scheduled a session of the indictment panel for Thursday in the “big Agrokor” case, which includes auditors Olivio Discordia and Sanja Hrstić in addition to the former owner of the concern Ivica Todorić, former member of the management of the concern Tomislav Lučić and former Agrokor directors Alojz Pandžić and Marijan Alagušić.
During the criminal proceedings so far, all the defendants have denied guilt. The indictment panel can ultimately confirm, reject or return the indictment to the prosecutor’s office for revision.
At the end of July this year, the state attorney’s office filed a new indictment accusing Todorić and Lučić of being key actors in the abuse of trust in business operations and falsifying business documents, while Pandžić, Alagušić, Discordia and Hrstić are charged with aiding and abetting these wrongdoings.
The prosecutor’s office previously reported that the total damage to Agrokor was over 179 million euros. It also reminded that during the completion of the investigation, a new financial and accounting expertise was conducted, the costs of which, including VAT, amount to slightly over one million euros. Earlier, more expensive expert testimony was rejected by the court as illegal evidence because it was conducted by experts who had a conflict of interest.
According to the prosecutor’s office, in the period from 2006 to mid-2016, the two first defendants agreed to misrepresent the financial condition of Agrokor, thus paying themselves and related companies improper dividends and favoring their own interests.
Between 2013 and 2017, Todorić was allegedly paid over 100 million euros from Agrokor’s account in order to buy the company’s shares from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). All this was carried out without the decisions of the supervisory bodies, against the laws and without any real intention to return the money, and with false documentation they tried to cover up the illegal transfers.
According to the indictment, Todorić also ordered numerous cash payments from the giro account of a Swiss company owned by Agrokor, using part of the money for the private needs of his family members and personal expenses.
Alagušić and Pandžić, in short, ensured “clean” financial statements, knowingly including false data in the business books in order to create a basis for false profits.
Auditors Discordia and Hrstić allegedly signed audit reports with favorable ratings every year, despite the fact that they knew about the falsely presented account balance and Agrokor’s business results. In this way, they made it possible to extract dividends that did not belong to them for many years and covered up the true picture of the business.
This is the third version of the indictment in the case in which as many as 15 people were originally accused – among them Todorić’s sons and former leading people of Agrokor. However, after new expert reports and a review of the evidence, the County State Attorney’s Office in Zagreb dropped the criminal prosecution for the nine previously accused, finding that there was not enough evidence for them.
(TYPE/Source: Hina/Photo: Archive)
