SIPA investigating Pavlović Bank over Dodik's loan

By order of the prosecutor from the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption, and with the order of the Court of BiH, SIPA police officers have been searching premises and documentation of Pavlović International Bank in Bijeljina since the early morning hours, writes the Patria News Agency.

Investigators and staff of the BiH Prosecutor's Office are on site, coordinating the work of police officers in the search for documentation. The search of documentation is being carried out within the investigation led by the BiH Prosecutor's Office, in connection with criminal offenses of financial crime.

On December 7, 2015, Slobodan Pavlović, the owner of this bank, testified about some irregularities he was forced to commit by the political leadership.

According to many, this is an investigation into the crime committed with a suspicious private loan by Milorad Dodik, when the President of Republika Srpska bought a villa in Belgrade. In 2007, as the entity's prime minister, he paid 750,000 euros through Pavlović Bank for the purchase of that Belgrade villa. It turned out that he took out the loan only a year later. It is said that his loan was repaid by Pavlović Bank employees, and in return, Dodik approved a favorable loan to Pavlović from the Investment and Development Bank (IRB).

Just a few months before this search, Pavlović Bank was seriously shaken financially, but the owner prevented a collapse through urgent recapitalization from his own funds withdrawn from foreign banks. It is believed that the bank was exposed because it was too commercially linked with Bobar Bank, so it is a real miracle that it survived without visible tremors.