While state land is being sold off, the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office archives criminal acts of notaries and Arabs!

At lightning and alarming speed, citizens of Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries are buying land and real estate in Bosnia and Herzegovina, even though individuals from these countries cannot do so under BiH legislation due to the lack of reciprocity in acquiring property rights in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and these countries, writes the Patria news agency.

One does not need to be an expert to see how much land and real estate is already owned by Arabs, a fact recently highlighted to the BiH news agency Patria by prominent professor Esad Duraković, who publicly warned about the problem of mass land sales in BiH.

- I am not emphasizing that it is about Arabs, but about foreigners in general; I would speak the same way about mass land sales to any foreigners. I unsuccessfully tried to get some media to mark and give media "treatment" to this problem, but – the media are also part of society, and how! It is known that Arabs are buying thousands of dunams of the best Bosnian land, buying entire regions, areas – says Duraković.

Besides the fact that no BiH politician is reacting to this dangerous phenomenon, numerous Arabs who have bought houses and land in BiH have done so through fraud, and investigations are already underway by SIPA and the Tax Administration based on a report from the BiH Service for Foreigners' Affairs.

Interestingly, the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office rejected the report and halted the investigation, which was submitted by the Federal Police Administration and contained clear guidelines on how the criminal purchase of land was taking place.

A large number of notaries in BiH, led by the former president of the FBiH Notary Chamber, Sefedin Suljević, also participated in the entire criminal act. A criminal complaint against him was forwarded to the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office.

- The Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office, in the case against S.S. et al., after conducting checks on April 22, 2016, issued a prosecutorial decision - an Order not to conduct an investigation. No complaint regarding this decision was submitted to this Prosecutor's Office by the complainant, and the case was subsequently archived – say the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office.

As Patria learns, Suljević helped a certain Mohammed Saad Awad Alhmood from Jordan, the owner of a certain company Agar based in Ilijaš, where Suljević's office is also located, to buy an enormously large number of properties and land, which Alhmood intended to resell to other persons of Arab origin.

Could the State Investigation and Protection Agency, as part of its investigation, also look into this case that was archived by the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office!?

- The State Investigation and Protection Agency has certain information, but at this moment we cannot disclose more information to the public – said SIPA to Patria.

Alhmood has repeatedly defrauded BiH citizens, buying properties (land and houses) in the areas of Sarajevo, Jablanica, Konjic, and Olovo, transferring the properties to his name in the land registers, and then selling them as his own property to other buyers without settling outstanding obligations to the sellers.

Alhmood also remained in debt from various transactions involving the resale of land in the area of Boračko and Jablaničko lakes.

Additionally, the fact that taxes were not paid is being investigated, and notary Suljević, among other things, signed nearly 100 contracts with individuals (Arabs) for the purchase of properties, and later annulled those contracts and transferred them to companies, which the Federal Police Administration characterized as destroying evidence of a committed criminal offense.

- The FBiH Tax Administration is "combing through" phantom companies that were established solely to buy properties but never paid a single mark in taxes. Major crime is happening in this sector – emphasizes our source.

Among other things, checks are being conducted and documentation is being collected on the establishment and registration of companies "RSD", "Montana nekretnine", "Alyaseen", "Agar"...

- We must determine all changes in ownership structures and changes of responsible persons in them – added our source close to the investigation.

Fictitious companies and tax evasion

The BiH Service for Foreigners' Affairs, in cooperation with other BiH institutions, recently conducted an operation aimed at determining the legality of land purchases in BiH and uncovering potential tax evasion during purchases and money laundering. It covered about 108 companies registered here, owned by foreigners, with 71 persons from Kuwait being company owners, 13 from Libya, 12 from the UAE, 10 from Syria, and 2 from Qatar.

The check revealed that there are many fictitious companies and that the actual owners never entered BiH but authorized BiH citizens to make purchases. There is reasonable suspicion of criminal acts of money laundering and tax evasion in the millions.

The Service for Foreigners' Affairs has expelled about a dozen foreign nationals in the last few months for money laundering.

While only a few individuals actually see the scope and seriousness of the problem, politicians and some prosecutors are doing nothing to prevent this increasingly dangerous phenomenon – the mass sale of land!