Kekerović pleaded guilty, Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH discovered illegalities back in 2009

Mlađen Kekerović, suspected of organized crime, money laundering and tax evasion, obstruction of justice, and falsifying or destroying business or commercial books or documents, has reached an agreement and pleaded guilty to financial crime. A unified prison sentence of 10 years is foreseen, along with the confiscation of illegally acquired assets amounting to 4,041,109 KM, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH filed an indictment in the case "Mlađen Kekerović and others" in December 2013.

The Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH also issued a press release stating that illegal VAT refunds in the case "MB - Kekerović and others" were discovered back in 2009.

The case was uncovered after an ITA inspector in the Tax Sector at the Banja Luka Regional Center, during a control of the taxpayer "MB - Kekerović" LLC, discovered an invoice from another taxpayer who had filed a VAT return with zero for the same accounting period, meaning they had no turnover in the controlled month. Following this, ITA inspectors conducted a detailed inspection of the taxpayer "MB - Kekerović" LLC and other related legal entities.

Upon completion of the investigative actions, the first Report on the existence of grounds for suspicion of tax and customs fraud, tax evasion, money laundering, and organized crime was forwarded by the ITA to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH in April 2010, with an addendum to that Report in February 2012.

According to the mentioned reports, it is suspected that 23 legal and natural persons illegally claimed and received VAT refunds, causing damage to the BiH Budget amounting to 9.6 million KM. As the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH discovered the illegal VAT refunds in the case "MB - Kekerović and others", ITA investigators have been involved from the beginning and continue to work with the prosecutor of the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime, and Corruption of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH. Until the entire case is concluded before the Court of BiH, they will support all activities of the judicial authorities in this matter, so that all other legal and natural persons involved in this case are appropriately punished, and the illegally obtained funds on account of VAT are returned to the BiH Budget.

From the establishment of the ITA until mid-2015, the Authority forwarded a total of 1,233 reports to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH on the existence of grounds for suspicion of damage to the BiH budget due to criminal offenses in the area of indirect taxes, with an estimated total damage of 226 million KM.