1.2 million euros donated by Kuwait to BiH Embassy missing: Cash taken since 2017, former ambassador remembers nothing

At least 1.2 million euros donated by Kuwaiti authorities to the BiH Embassy in that country have mysteriously disappeared. According to documentation in the possession of Istraga.ba, the donated money disappeared in the period from July 2017 until the end of 2023. This is money that Kuwait has donated to the BiH Embassy since 1994. Until 2017, the money was donated via bank account, but then, by decision of the then BiH Ambassador Mehmed Halilović (currently advisor to Minister Ram Isak), the donation was received in cash. All trace of that money has been lost since then.

There are minutes regarding all of this in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH and the Presidency of BiH. The BiH Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation. And here is what Istraga.ba has uncovered so far.

Since September 2023, the BiH Ambassador to Kuwait has been Nusret Čančar. According to his report from March 21, 2024, the BiH Embassy in Kuwait was found in a catastrophic state. Phones were disconnected due to unpaid bills. The total debt amounted to approximately 4677 euros. Ambassador Čančar informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH about the unpaid bills, but was told that "the Ministry will not pay these bills because they are outdated and complete documentation is missing".

"I was told to file a complaint through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait, which I did. Only on December 26, 2023, after several written interventions, did I get a meeting with the Assistant Minister for Consular Affairs," Ambassador Čančar stated in his report.

And then – shock.

"An official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait told me, 'I am surprised that we have not paid so many phone bills when we could have done so multiple times from the financial resources that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait donates to the Embassy to help its work.' I was uncomfortable," Ambassador Čančar wrote in his report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH.

After this meeting, the BiH Embassy officially requested a review of all donations from the Kuwaiti authorities over the past ten years. However, instead of a response, Ambassador Čančar received a call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait. The meeting was scheduled for February 5.

"At the treasury of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait, I was received by a lower-ranking official named Fuad Al Shamari, along with another official who did not introduce himself. After a courteous welcome, they informed me that they had prepared the last two tranches of financial aid for the BiH Embassy in the amount of 30,000 Kuwaiti dinars, which at the exchange rate of that day was around 90,000 euros. Visibly surprised, I asked on what occasion, and they told me that it was a regular subsidy according to the Ministry's decision, amounting to 5,000 Kuwaiti dinars per month, and they were paying for October, November, and December 2023, and January, February, and March 2024," Ambassador Čančar informed officials in BiH.

After they identified him and had him sign receipts for the money, the BiH ambassador expected to receive a check.

"But one of them brought a bag with the logo of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait and put two bundles of cash in it... They showed me bank-wrapped banknotes in denominations of 10 Kuwaiti dinars and said – that's it," recounted the BiH Ambassador to Kuwait in his report.

With that money, Čančar went to the BiH Embassy. He deposited the donated 90,000 euros in cash into the Embassy's account.

However, at that moment, another strange thing happened. The First Secretary of the BiH Embassy in Kuwait, Bojan Jožanc, suddenly resigned and left the Embassy, i.e., the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH. Ambassador Čančar began searching the archives for documentation. He concluded that most of the documentation was destroyed, but he found one document that actually revealed the beginning of the fraud.

"The BiH Embassy sends its warmest regards to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Kuwait and has the honor to inform you that the First Secretary of the BiH Embassy in the State of Kuwait, Bojan Jožanc, is authorized to receive monetary funds intended for the BiH Embassy from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Kuwait," stated a letter sent by the then BiH Ambassador Mehmed Halilović to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH on July 11, 2017.

Therefore, from July 2017 until the end of 2023, the BiH Embassy in Kuwait received donations amounting to 15,000 euros per month, in cash. However, there is no trace in the Embassy that the money was deposited into an account or used for other embassy business. During that period, the ambassadors of BiH were Mehmed Halilović and Sanjin Halimović.

Before Halilović and Halimović, the BiH Ambassador to Kuwait was Senahid Bristrić. In a conversation with Istraga.ba, he confirms that Kuwait has been donating money since 1994, when the BiH Embassy was established.

"That money was always deposited or transferred to the embassy's account and used for official business. I remember that after he took over as ambassador to Kuwait, Ambassador Mehmed Halilović called me and asked me what I had done with that money. After I explained and told him that the money was used for the functioning of the embassy, he told me that he had been to a meeting with people from Kuwait, and they told him that the money belonged to the ambassador. I don't know who he spoke with, but I know that for years before that, the money belonged to the embassy, not the ambassador," former BiH Ambassador to Kuwait Senahid Bristrić told us.

Mehmed Halilović, on the other hand, claims that he did not discuss this money with Senahid Bristrić. But when directly asked – who gave him permission to sign the act requesting that donations be received in cash, not through an account, he begins to "not remember".

"Where is the money?" we asked former ambassador Halilović.

"I don't know. I didn't take it. I was only there briefly, about 7-8 months after that. I don't remember what happened," Halilović replied.

Later, the former ambassador, and current advisor to Ram Isak, sent us a message stating – "Dear Sir, I do not remember signing anything".

On the other hand, the current ambassador Nusret Čančar has also informed the investigative authorities about everything. On December 6 last year, SIPA sent notifications to the BiH Embassy in Kuwait for Ambassador Čančar to come to SIPA during his first visit to BiH and give a statement regarding "alleged long-term misappropriation of money from the Embassy in Kuwait".

At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH formed a three-member commission that went to Kuwait to investigate all these allegations. In the Commission's Minutes (Đorđe Latinović, Mile Sadžak, and Amir Čorbo), it was stated that Ambassador Nusret Čančar said that the BiH Embassy in Kuwait sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH on July 11, 2017, concerning the receipt of donated money. At that time, the BiH Ambassador to Kuwait was Mehmed Halilović.