Hearing Held: Those Arrested in 'Kasa' Operation Claimed Monthly Earnings of 2,000 BAM

(Patria) - A hearing was held today at the Municipal Court in Sarajevo in the "Kasa" case, discussing the Prosecutor's Office's request for pre-trial detention for Ines Juretić and Oleg Krautblatt, who are accused of abuse of office in connection with tax evasion.

The suspects Krautblatt and Juretić, specifically the former and current directors of the company "Inspirit" d.o.o., are the individuals who leased the software program "Inspirit Gastro," which enabled the Tax Administration to not be shown the actual revenue, and therefore pre-trial detention was requested for them.

At today's hearing to determine restrictive measures for 11 individuals suspected in the "Kasa" case, the defense attorneys agreed with the measures proposed by the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office.

However, a request was submitted to the Municipal Court in Sarajevo to allow the accused to meet with family members who are also suspects or considered potential witnesses, given that some catering establishments are family businesses.

The defense warned that a large number of families depend on the viability of these catering establishments, which are now, as they stated, closed, and therefore requested an acceleration of the investigation and witness examination process. One of the measures requested by the Prosecutor's Office is a ban on business operations, which could jeopardize jobs.

All the accused stated that their monthly income was 1,500 BAM, while one of the owners stated he earned 2,000 BAM.

The Prosecutor's Office stated that special investigative actions have been carried out in the current phase of the investigation and that they possess a number of conversations with the suspects. The Prosecutor's Office clarified that during the period from 2014 to 2018, Oleg Krautblatt was the director of the company "Inspirit" d.o.o., which serviced fiscal devices, and from 2018 until the time of arrest, Ines Juretić held the position of director of the mentioned company.

At today's hearing, the Prosecutor's Office revealed that Oleg created programs and software that allowed catering clients to delete certain items when issuing fiscal receipts. The company "Inspirit" d.o.o. sold a special software called Inspirit Gastro to catering establishments throughout the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina entity.

The specialized program was designed based on the principle of a "short and long click." This means that if a person wants to print a fiscal receipt for a product sale using a "long click," i.e., by holding down the button, it makes the revenues invisible, even though everything appeared to be in accordance with the law to the inspectors.

The Prosecutor's Office stated that the suspects showed particular persistence in committing criminal offenses.