How Arabs are buying real estate in BiH: Numerous irregularities found, everything reported to SIPA

The BiH Service for Foreigners Affairs, in cooperation with other BiH institutions, conducted an operation aimed at determining the legality of land purchases in our country, uncovering potential tax evasion during purchases and money laundering, N1 reports, as relayed by the BiH news agency Patria. This primarily relates to the increased sale of land to Arabs.

The operation aimed to obtain information on how many companies are registered in BiH, and to check on the ground how many of them are fictitious.

- Approximately 108 companies registered here with foreign owners were covered, with 71 individuals from Kuwait owning companies, 13 from Libya, 12 from the UAE, 10 from Syria, and 2 from Qatar - said Slobodan Ujić, director of the Service for Foreigners Affairs.

During the operation, inspectors from the Service for Foreigners Affairs conducted operational checks.

- And we found that there are many, many fictitious companies, that individuals have not even entered BiH, they do not have residency at all, yet they have authorized our citizens who can buy real estate in BiH on behalf of their companies. We also obtained data that there are currently 355 land registry extracts where foreigners have purchased these properties, or 51 legal entities. Since we were checking the share capital for foreign companies registered here, in 99 percent of cases, the share capital is 2,000 KM. Then we found data that these legal entities own real estate worth certainly 600, 700 thousand marks or more. This led us to suspect criminal offenses of money laundering, tax evasion, and so on - said Ujić.

He added that all findings have been forwarded to other security agencies in BiH, SIPA, as well as the Tax Administration.

- We have held meetings with the Tax Administration several times in the last six months, and there are many legal entities that do not pay taxes, with figures even in the millions. Together, we are doing everything to recover these funds. Our officers are constantly in the field and we operationally cover what is our job, but everyone must do their part. We do not issue decisions to companies, nor can we influence them. In the last four or five months alone, there have been about ten deportations of foreign nationals due to money laundering and other offenses. The Service is doing its part of the job - added Ujić.

In addition to the Service for Foreigners, SIPA, and the Tax Administration, the Intelligence-Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also involved in the case.