At the beginning of this year, the court process continued in the case of a lawsuit filed by the co-owners of the former Hercegovacka Bank, who are seeking the return of money invested in the bank’s shares, as well as profits that can be measured in tens of millions of BAM, as well as in real estate.
Their claim amounts to 16 million BAM, which they allocated to the bank’s share capital plus the payment of dividends, and they are also seeking compensation for the lost profit that belongs to the shareholders based on the planned payment of dividends.
According to unofficial information, the bankruptcy creditors of Hercegovacka Bank have applied and are demanding that Terminal Dretelj be returned to the bankruptcy estate of Hercegovacka Bank with the aim of selling it and settling the debtors.
Moreover, a company from Croatia is most interested, but the terminal is also wanted by a company based in Herzegovina, headed by a foreign businessman close to the HDZ.
The decision on the creditor’s request for the sale of the Dretelj Terminal could end up in the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), which is why many believe that filling the Constitutional Court at this moment would best suit the close partners in the Government, Milorad Dodik and Dragan Covic. Someone would profit politically and take off the burden he had imposed on himself, and someone would benefit politically and financially.
How did Hercegovacka Bank get ownership of Dretelj?
The company “Monitor M”, which included “Hercegovina gradnja”, was managed by Ljubo Cesic Rojs. “Hercegovina gradnja” establishes the oil trading company “CroHerc AG”, which uses the terminal in Dretelj almost free of charge with the consent of the Federation of BiH (FBiH) Minister of Defense at the time and the president of HDZ BiH, Ante Jelavic.
In April 1999, the Ordinance was adopted, which stipulates that oil importers must have larger storage facilities. Thus, small importers and competitors were eliminated, so CroHerc, thanks to “owning” the warehouse in Dretelj, became the second largest importer of oil in the FBiH and mainly did business with distributors from Slovenia.
There were estimates that in 1998, the budget of the FBiH was “deprived” of 175 million BAM from the three largest oil importers alone, which “disappeared” in the tangle of different interpretations of customs regulations.
That’s how CroHerc accumulated tax debts, and only in 2013 will director Marinko Planinic be accused of this. The original verdict of 4 years and 6 months in prison and the return of 18 million BAM of embezzled money was canceled in 2016 due to the alleged wrong procedure in the exclusion of evidence!?
Nevertheless, in 2001, CroHerc was out of the picture. The temporary manager of Hercegovacka Bank Toby Robinson settled the debt of the company “Monitor M” by activating the mortgage over the Dretelj Terminal, which thus became the property of Hercegovacka Bank, Klix.ba reports.
E.Dz.
