Operation 'Bankar': SIPA Arrests Three Sberbank Employees

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) today carried out an operational action codenamed „Bankar“ in the Sarajevo area. The action was conducted under orders from the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo and the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton.

During the implementation of the operational action, SIPA police officers searched residential buildings at three locations and deprived three individuals of their liberty on grounds of suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of "Associating for the Purpose of Committing Criminal Offenses", in connection with the criminal offense of "Abuse of Position and Authority".

During the searches, items and business documentation were discovered and temporarily seized, which may serve as evidence in the further course of criminal proceedings.

"In connection with the above, SIPA submitted a report to the competent prosecutor's office on the committed criminal offenses and perpetrators against three individuals, on grounds of suspicion that, as employees of a commercial bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the period from the beginning of 2016 to the beginning of 2019, by abusing their official position, exploiting their official position and exceeding the limits of their official authority, they conducted electronic purchase and sale of foreign currencies for personal account at an exchange rate list that was not customary for the period from the beginning of 2016 to March 2019, i.e., according to those foreign exchange rate values which the suspects, before the sale, unlawfully and systematically increased multiple times, i.e., systematically changed the currency parity before transfers to their accounts opened in various commercial banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina with the aim of concealment, so that the money thus acquired, which they knew was obtained by committing criminal offenses, they would insert into the payment system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, using it in various ways, and thus acquired illegal property gain in the total amount of 1,094,626.30 KM, and caused damage to one commercial bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the amount of 1,082,813.79 KM", SIPA stated.

Those arrested are the former head of the Sberbank branch in Sarajevo, and two other former employees.