Prosecutor's Office of BiH orders SIPA and Interpol to investigate "Tuš" case

The company TUŠ Trade d.o.o., based in Bihać, has accumulated and left enormous debts to domestic suppliers and producers, as well as to the state of BiH, amounting to over 10.3 million euros, while attempting to improperly withdraw from the BH market and thus leave multi-million euro debt to the citizens of this country.

After all methods and attempts by BH companies to collect their claims through usual business and legal activities were exhausted, a criminal complaint was filed against: Mirko Tuš, Milan Mlinar, Branko Cokan, Vid Habjan, as well as against their companies in BiH – TUŠ d.o.o. Bihać and TUŠ Trade d.o.o. Bihać due to "founded suspicion of attempted economic crime and fraud in economic operations", with founded suspicion that they committed the following criminal acts of organized crime from Article 250, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of BiH in connection with the criminal act:

- fraud in economic operations from Article 251, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of BiH,
- tax evasion or fraud from Article 210, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of BiH,
- tax evasion from Article 273, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of BiH
- non-payment of taxes from Article 211, Paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of BiH

We inform the public that, following the aforementioned criminal complaint, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH has issued an order to the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), as well as to Interpol, to undertake investigative actions prescribed by law both in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Republic of Slovenia, in order to establish and prove the actual facts in the case of the criminal complaint filed by BH businessmen against Mirko Tuš and others.

Due to the suspicion that the reported legal entities are attempting to cease their operations in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, we remind the public that when filing the criminal complaint on 24.10.2014, it was requested from the Prosecutor's Office of BiH to implement an urgent temporary measure of asset freezing, prohibition of operations, and any status changes for two legal entities registered in BiH: Tuš d.o.o and Tuš trade d.o.o.

- Unfortunately, we note that the suspicions and fears of businessmen in Bosnia and Herzegovina were justified because, after filing the criminal complaint, one of the reported legal entities filed a request for the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings with the Municipal Court in Bihać. The same court, based on that request, appointed a temporary bankruptcy trustee in the company "TUŠ trade" who should submit a report to the court on the company's status by the end of the month and determine if there is a reason to open bankruptcy proceedings - stated the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH.

The authorized representative of the affected businessmen filed an urgent request to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH on 28.11.2014 to suspend any bankruptcy proceedings, and this was also proposed in the aforementioned criminal complaint. To this day, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH has not yet reacted, i.e., taken any protective measures regarding the submitted requests.

In the event that bankruptcy proceedings are initiated, the affected companies, BH suppliers of "TUŠ" d.o.o. and "TUŠ Trade" d.o.o. will be left without the possibility to collect their claims, and we emphasize that, according to the data available to the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH, these are multi-million claims.

The Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH, as a representative of the interests of BH businessmen, appeals and expects the Prosecutor's Office of BiH to urgently react to the proposal for the introduction of temporary measures of asset freezing, prohibition of operations, and any status changes for the two reported legal entities in question: Tuš d.o.o and Tuš trade d.o.o.