Pandora Locked in Prosecutor's Office: Čović's "Casual" Relationship with Čaušević Cost Bosnia and Herzegovina Two Million!

In the Pandora police operation in June 2014, Kemal Čaušević, former director of the Indirect Taxation Authority (UIO), was arrested along with 53 other individuals, including 30 members of the UIO and customs terminals.

Čaušević and others were arrested for corrupt criminal offenses of organized crime, customs and tax evasion, money laundering, and abuse of office or authority in connection with the import of textile and other goods into Bosnia and Herzegovina.

However, the BiH Prosecutor's Office has never interrogated the individuals mentioned by Čaušević in his statement, and according to Patria's findings, politicians whose names were mentioned are lobbying fiercely to prevent the Pandora's box from being fully "emptied".

Čaušević mentioned Dragan Čović, member of the BiH Presidency and leader of HDZ BiH, on several occasions. Therefore, journalists recently asked Čović about his relationship with Čaušević.

About the same as with you, perhaps a bit more casual than with you – Čović said.

As a reminder, Čaušević explained the nature of that casual relationship in his statement. He admitted to investigators of the BiH Prosecutor's Office that at Dragan Čović's insistence, the UIO purchased the Sokol building in Mostar in 2009 for 2 million KM, even though an expert estimated the building's value at only around 900,000 KM.

Previously, the building was privatized from Sokol by Čović's friends, while Čović was the director of this former Mostar giant, at very favorable prices, and then they sold it to the Authority for two million KM, which is double the estimated value.