Having held the main trial in the criminal case against the accused Zhang Jiaofen et al., on 22 July 2019, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina handed down the first instance judgment acquitting the accused Zhang Jiaofen and the legal entity “Zhang” d.o.o. Sarajevo of the charges that, by the acts described in Sections 1 and 2 of the judgment operative part, they committed the following: the accused Zhang Jiaofen, a continued criminal offense of Tax Evasion or Fraud under Article 210(4) of the Criminal Code of BiH, as read with Article 54 of the CC BiH, and the legal entity “Zhang” d.o.o. Sarajevo, the criminal offense of Tax Evasion or Fraud under Article 210(4) of the Criminal Code of BiH, as read with Article 124. a) and c) of the Criminal Code of BiH.
The accused Zhang Jiaofen is acquitted of the charges that, during the period between September 2010 and December 2015, by giving false or reduced information about the acquired taxable income, she damaged the Budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the amount of KM 982,529.57, and that during the period between 13 September 2010 and 20 December 2015, the “Zhang” d.o.o. Company Sarajevo, as a legal entity, disposed with the unlawfully obtained property gain in the total amount of KM 982,529.57, which was acquired through the commission of the continued criminal offense of Tax Evasion or Fraud, and which was obtained by the accused Zhang Jiaofen in the name and for the account of the legal entity “Zhang” d.o.o. Sarajevo, in the manner comprehensively described in Section 1 of the judgment operative part.
Pursuant to Article 285 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CPC BiH), the accused Zhang Jiaofen was found guilty of the commission of the criminal offense of Money Laundering under Article 209(3) of the Criminal Code of BiH.
The accused Zhang Jiaofen was found guilty because, along with I.N., I.DŽ., I.A. and T.N., during 2014 and 2015, after Zhang Jiaofen, as the owner and the responsible person in the legal entity “Zhang” d.o.o. Sarajevo, she had performed unlawful business activities in the legal entity by purchasing the goods in the so called “black market purchase and sales” and “black market sales of goods”, with the intent to conceal the actual business performance, and the acquired large unlawful property gain, and with the aim to take the unlawfully earned money out of Bosnia and Herzegovina in an unlawful manner in order to cover up the scope of her business activities, wherefore Zhang Jiaofen contacted I.N., having known that he was physically taking money out of BiH for the needs of a large number of Chinese tradesmen working in the “Arizona Market” area and transporting it to Croatia, and thereupon paying this money towards the accounts of his relatives I.DŽ., I.A. and T.N., who had previously opened their foreign currency accounts, along with I.N., at the Branch Office of the Zagrebačka Bank in the place of Županja through official person Anita Vajš, and thus transferring the money from their accounts to the accounts of the accused Zhang Jiaofen in the PR China, specifically the total amount of EUR 2,673,000.00 towards the account of the accused Zhang Jiaofen, and the amount of EUR 240,000.00 to the account of the accused’s father Zhang Yong Fang, whereby she committed the criminal offense of Money Laundering under Article 209(3) of the Criminal Code of BiH.
The Court sentenced the accused Zhang Jiaofen to imprisonment for a term of 5 (five) years.
Pursuant to Article 209(5) of the Criminal Code of BiH, the amount of EUR 2,913,000.00 shall be confiscated from the accused Zhang Jiaofen, whose counter value calculated in convertible marks pursuant to the exchange rate of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina valid on the payment day shall be paid by the accused towards the Budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina within a deadline of 30 (thirty) days after the judgment finality.
