Court Re-registration Concealed Money Laundering

(Patria) - In 2014, the Land Registry Department of the Municipal Court in Travnik registered land near Busovača as property of "VRADIS Investicije", a long-defunct Sarajevo company. This legalized fictitious trading from 2008 with stockbroker Zijad Blekić, which had been concealed for a long time.

Journalists from the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIN) found that the court clerk at the time did not verify whether "VRADIS Investicije" still existed. She also accepted the re-registration request from Blekić's associate Edin Dizdar, even though he did not provide authorization to act in court, which is contrary to the Law on Land Registers of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH). Despite the request arriving six years after the sale, it was processed on the same day, which is not the practice in this court department.

The head of the Land Registry Department, Maja Spahić, believes that her predecessor, who has since passed away, did not make any omissions that would call into question the legality of the re-registration. At the same time, the prosecution claims that the re-registration was carried out improperly and that Dizdar had assistance from individuals within the Court during the disputed property registration.

"VRADIS Investicije" was founded by Blekić's and Dizdar's close associates a few months before they bought Blekić's land for 1.1 million KM – four times more than the value determined by experts in a subsequent appraisal.

The company received the money as compensation for mediating the purchase of land for the construction of the Slovenian NLB Group building in Sarajevo. The project was worth around 33 million KM, and most of the money was paid to the landowner – the company "Unioninvest – izgradnja objekata". However, this business plan was not realized and became the subject of interest for the police and prosecution. Their investigation determined that "VRADIS Investicije" had no mediating role in the project, and Blekić and a group of private individuals and their family members were charged with laundering millions of convertible marks.

Details of the disputed re-registration are partially described in the indictment filed by the Sarajevo Canton Prosecutor's Office against 19 people for embezzlement of 33 million KM in loans from NLB Banka.

During the trial, which began at the end of October, the prosecution will attempt to prove that a significant portion of the money intended for the construction of the Bank's business center at Marijin-Dvor in Sarajevo was transferred to the accounts of companies controlled by the accused and, through fictitious contracts, ended up in their private accounts.

One of the disputed transactions was the land purchase agreement in Busovača signed by "VRADIS Investicije" with Zijad Blekić. Since 2007, Blekić, along with Nermin Brkić, an employee of his company "Eurohaus", had been buying plots in the area. Potatoes and bulls were briefly raised on the land. Instead of entrepreneurial success, the land became a stage for money laundering from a large project in Sarajevo.

In 2008, the Slovenian NLB Bank intended to purchase attractive land for the construction of its center at Marijin-Dvor. The land was offered by the company "Unioninvest – izgradnja objekata", and the Bank accepted.

However, instead of a direct purchase, the Bank entered into a business cooperation agreement with the project leader – "Profin-Invest" from Sarajevo and several other companies that were assigned various roles in the realization of the Marijin-Dvor project. One of the founders of "Profin-Invest", Armin Mulahusić, was the director of a fund in which Zijad Blekić was the largest shareholder.

The Slovenians provided a loan of 33 million KM to "Profin-Invest" for the purchase of land from "Unioninvest – izgradnja objekata", the preparation of the project, and obtaining construction permits for the future center.

However, the center was never built, and most of the money, contrary to the agreement, was diverted to fictitious transactions of various private companies controlled or owned by Blekić and others, as described in the indictment.

In early September 2008, "Profin-Invest" transferred almost 27 million KM to the account of "Unioninvest – izgradnja objekata" – the majority of the agreed price for the land at Marijin-Dvor. On the same day, this company transferred 1.1 million KM to the account of "VRADIS Investicije" as compensation for mediation services in the land sale.

The prosecution claims that this company did not mediate the sale nor did it conclude any contract to justify the collection of such a large sum.

"VRADIS Investicije" was founded by Muharem Bajrić, Blekić's neighbor and driver from his "Eurohaus", and Ramiz Bibić, an employee of the same brokerage firm, was appointed director. Witnesses stated during the investigation that this company was actually managed by Blekić and Edin Dizdar, the man who appeared in the Travnik court in 2014, seeking to register Blekić's land to the non-existent "VRADIS Investicije".

Ten days after receiving the 1.1 million KM for mediation, the company transferred all the money to Zijad Blekić's private account, using it to purchase 13.4 thousand square meters of land in Busovača. Appraisers determined during the 2020 investigation that the land was worth four times less. Co-owners of the land, Zijad Blekić and Nermin Brkić, signed the contract with Bibić, the director of "VRADIS Investicije".

Brkić later testified to investigators that Blekić was in debt and that he once approached him with a plan to resolve them. He asked Brkić to gift him his share of the jointly owned land, promising to return ownership to him after a year. Brkić described being invited with his wife to the Sarajevo notary Miloš P. Jovović to sign the documents, as the land was part of their marital property. He said he went believing they were signing a gift deed:

"The notary put some papers in front of us to sign and hurried us to sign them. (...) Neither my wife nor I looked at what we were signing."

Brkić said he later received the contract by mail, but instead of the promised gift deed, he found a purchase agreement in the envelope.

However, despite the unusual circumstances he described, Brkić never initiated legal proceedings to reclaim his share of ownership of the land in Busovača.

Brkić told investigators that Blekić assured him the land would remain in their ownership because "VRADIS Investicije" was his company, and he kept that promise for six years.

Even after the sale, Zijad Blekić continued to manage his portion of the land, building a summer house where he hosted gatherings with private company owners and representatives of banks and institutions from Sarajevo. Two years later, he gifted his share to his daughter Azra, who soon returned ownership of the property to him.

Blekić declined to speak with a CIN journalist.

These contracts were also concluded with notary Jovović, and the land was subsequently re-registered at the Court in Travnik. The notary told the CIN journalist that he did not remember the details as it was a long time ago.

The new fictitious owner of the land – the company "VRADIS Investicije" – was dissolved in 2010 and merged with "Unioninvest – izgradnja objekata", where Edin Dizdar became director. Lawyer Asim Crnalić states that for years Dizdar was unaware that the land had not entered the ownership of this company, even though he managed it.

The property was recorded as the company's asset in its business documentation, but the court records indicated it belonged to Blekić and Brkić, which contradicts international accounting standards.

When he learned of this in 2013, he asked Blekić about it. "Blekić gave some explanation. He told him it was paid for and should be registered to 'Unioninvest' because the merger was already completed," explains lawyer Crnalić on behalf of Edin Dizdar, who is in custody.

Thus, in the summer of 2014, four years after "VRADIS Investicije" was dissolved and six years after the purchase of Blekić's and Brkić's land, Dizdar submitted a request to the Travnik Court to register the non-existent company, with which he had no formal connection, as the owner. He attached a copy of the 2008 purchase agreement.

By reviewing court documents, CIN journalists found that he also attached a six-year-old extract from the court register for "VRADIS Investicije". According to this document, the director was Ramiz Bibić, and at that time, Dizdar held no position in the company. According to the Law on Land Registers of the FBiH, a court clerk must reject the request if it is not submitted by an authorized person.

Despite a series of procedural omissions, the head of the Land Registry Department, Maja Spahić, states that the re-registration is legal, but that she would have acted differently and requested a recent extract from the company register as well as an annex to the purchase agreement that would name "Unioninvest – izgradnja objekata" as the buyer.

Lawyer Crnalić states that at the recommendation of a former official from the Department, his client prepared an annex to the contract and sent it to the tax administration with a question about whether additional tax needed to be paid. He did not receive a response, so he proceeded with the old contract.

This annex to the contract is still not in the court documentation in Travnik, but CIN journalists found there that the decision to register the new owner was made on the same day the request was submitted.

Spahić says that such urgency in processing re-registration requests is not common in the Land Registry Department.