JANAFF CASE Million euros found that Kovačević tried to hide

CROATIA, (Patria) - New details of the major corruption affair in Croatia emerged today, with several people arrested in an operation by USKOK and DORH, and about ten suspected of corruption and rigging tenders. The head of the state company Janaf, Dragan Kovačević, was arrested, and police yesterday found a hidden million euros during a search of a house in Sombor. A large amount of documentation, which investigators are still reviewing, was also found along with the money, Index.hr reports.

Yesterday, the police spent a good part of the day taking Kovačević from Remetinec to search some premises, and the villa in Samobor belonging to his acquaintance Dean Šparavec particularly caught their eye, RTL reports.

Two identical villas, standing next to each other in Samobor, were built by the company Alfa Stan, and the director of that company, Dean Šparavec, lives in one of them. When asked by RTL, he replied that his family home in Samobor was not searched yesterday.

"My family home in Samobor was not searched yesterday, and therefore neither were the cars that were in the garage at my house," Šparavec replied to RTL.

However, next to his house is another, identical villa, registered to Dragan Čolić from Makarska. This is a villa that until a few years ago was owned by Vilko and Alfonsina Vlahović. Five years ago, Alfonsina Vlahović mortgaged this property so that Zdravko Mamić could be released from pre-trial detention.

The Vlahović family moved out of the villa a few years ago, after which Dragan Čolić from Makarska was registered as the owner.

It is certain that with this move, Kovačević tried to hide part of his assets and documents from investigators. To recall, before his arrest, he tried to destroy his mobile phones by throwing them into the Sava River. Investigators found them.

INDEX today also published photos of the interior of Dragan Kovačević's private club in Zagreb's Slovenska Street, which was frequented by politicians and members of the Croatian Government.

The club was popular during the lockdown because it was the only place in the center of Zagreb where a waiter could serve you a drink and where you could talk in peace. It had two bars and a waiter, and no bills were issued.

Why is the club of interest to Uskok?

Last week, Uskok launched an investigation against Janaf director Dragan Kovačević and ten other defendants, two of whom are members of parliament. They are accused of suspected criminal offenses of accepting bribes, trading in influence, and abuse of position and authority in an attempt.

The police had been monitoring the businessman Krešo Petek for a long time, and they recorded him with video cameras entering a bank to get money, leaving the bank with money, and going to the so-called club of Dragan Kovačević, the head of Janaf, in Slovenska Street. They filmed him entering and leaving the club without money. They later announced that there was almost 2 million kuna in the bag.

The infamous club itself, the place of money handover, was specially analyzed by Uskok, given that the police, in connection with this location, apparently recorded a number of other interesting things besides the handover itself. Investigators state that Kovačević received "high-ranking officials" in this space, without specifying who exactly. Two days ago, it turned out that one of those names was Jakov Kitarović, the husband of former president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, as well as three ministers from the current Croatian Government.