Uskok, on the basis of the investigation into illegality in Croatian Forests (HŠ) started in 2023 in cooperation with the HŠ Administration and the police criminal report, launched an investigation against entrepreneur Marija Janković (50) and 16 other employees of HŠ for receiving and giving bribes for concessions to buyers of timber.
The prosecutor’s office and the police reported, without specifying the identities, that Janković is suspected of having given money and various services to the responsible persons in Croatian Forests from March 2024 to September 10, 2025, and in return ensured preferential treatment in the allocation of wood assortments for his own and related trading companies.
Uskok and the police add that 16 responsible persons from high schools in the areas of Zagreb, Bjelovar, Vrbovac, Garešnica, Grubišno Polje, Ivanska, Daruvar, Čazma and Suhopolje are suspected of accepting bribes. This enabled Janković and his partners to have priority in the delivery of wood in the quantity, quality, type and dynamics that he himself determined, regardless of the real needs of the market and other contractual customers.
It is also suspected that the head of the Department of Commercial Affairs in the Directorate of High School, Darko Sušanj (62), ordered his subordinates to ensure the delivery of wood according to the demands of Janković, the owner of the companies Atlas MR and Jasen, but also to other companies such as Herc trade, Drvna industrije Zelina, Interijera Sabljo, Slavonije DI and the trade of Stolarija Vever from Novi Marof.
According to the media, among the executives at HŠ who are suspected of embezzlement are Ivan Cug, head of the Forestry Administration of the Bjelovar branch, Dalibor Bakran, head of commercial affairs in the same branch, Slaven Šarić, manager of the Vrbovec Forestry and Mladen Greidl, manager of the Garešnica Forestry, as well as several forestry technicians and foresters.
Uskok alleges that Janković gave Sušnja 15,000 euros in bribes so that he would secure the requested quantities of wood, take care of the delivery of wood and contact subordinate managers to transfer the obligation to deliver wood. Unofficially, it is known that Sušanj admitted to the investigators receiving bribes for favoring customers.
The prosecution suspects that Ivan Cug received a EUR 10,000 bribe from Janković for ensuring the transfer of the obligation to deliver wood from the territory of one branch to the territory of other subsidiaries, while Dalibor Bakran received at least EUR 50,000 from the latter for that service, as well as for opening an order for the delivery of wood to companies of Janković’s interests.
Uskok and the police also suspect that Slaven Šarić ensured the delivery of wood to Janković and selected and stored better quality logs for him, for which he received 500 euros, and also accepted the offer of free construction work and furnishing of a building owned by him worth at least 5,000 euros.
According to the suspicions of the prosecutor’s office and the police, one of the suspects received a 5,000 euro bribe from Janković in order to ensure the delivery of wood, separate and store better quality logs, and reduce the quality of the wood, and thus its value.
They reduced the quality of the wood, and thus its value.
Furthermore, the suspected forestry technician of Šumaria Ivanska, for ensuring the selection of better quality logs and handing over logs worth 6,360 euros and not stating the above in the HŠ business documents, received at least 6,600 euros from Janković.
Uskok also suspects that the Čazma forester received 5,600 euros from Janković in order to enable him to deliver wood preferentially. At the same time, the prosecutor’s office points out, Revirnik also reduced the quality of the wood, and thus its value.
The other defendants received bribes from Janković in the range of 200 to 800 euros for the services of privileged deliveries of wood, selection and storage of better quality logs, reduction of the quality and value of wood, and consideration of complaints about the quality of wood without determining the actual condition.
Uskok will propose to the investigating judge of the County Court in Zagreb that 14 defendants be remanded in custody, and for one defendant, a precautionary measure of prohibition of business activity has been determined.
This case is one of three proceedings, the link of which is the entrepreneur Janković, who, in addition to corruption, is also suspected of tax evasion and fraud to the detriment of European Union funds.
On Thursday, Uskok reported that it launched an investigation against Janković and five other suspects and one company on suspicion that they used fake accounts to show non-existent timber traffic and then falsified tax calculations, and laundered money by investing in cryptocurrencies, gold and loans.
The group charged by the prosecutor’s office with criminal association, tax evasion, money laundering and assisting in tax evasion allegedly damaged the state budget by 831,000 euros and earned at least 205,000 euros.
Janković was also investigated by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb for subsidy fraud in the purchase of used briquetting machines from Serbia that were presented as new. According to the media, his co-defendants, the married couple Ružica and Ivan Sabljo, admitted their guilt before European investigators, Hina writes.
