How millions of marks were siphoned from the Faculty of Pharmacy in Sarajevo

In November 2015, the news agency Patria published a text about the investigation conducted by the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office against R.A., suspected of embezzling money from the Faculty of Pharmacy in Sarajevo.

This concerns Rijad Arifović, the former accountant of this higher education institution, who was arrested this morning by order of the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office in an operation by the Federal Police Administration.

Arifović is suspected of evading taxes for the Faculty of Pharmacy, whose debts on this basis have grown to nearly seven million KM, including interest.

The crime at this reputable state higher education institution began to be uncovered after Dean Davorka Završnik requested in 2013 that the Sarajevo Prosecutor's Office investigate who plunged the Faculty into millions in debts, incurred between 2002 and 2012.

The largest debts arose from non-payment of contributions and taxes for employees, but there are also hundreds of other unknowns regarding the disappearance of the Faculty's money. It is suspected that money was also siphoned during the renovation of the Faculty building.

One of the foreign banks with branches in Bosnia and Herzegovina is also involved in the criminal activities, whose employees illegally paid out money from the Faculty's account and transferred it to the account of another company.

The news agency Patria is in possession of a payment slip showing that nearly 20,000 KM was withdrawn from the Faculty's account in one day, but the payment order was not issued by the Faculty at all, but by the Sarajevo accounting agency "Sumiko", owned by Rijad Arifović.