Prosecutor's Office of BiH satisfied with the largest sentence ever imposed in a financial crime case

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH is satisfied with the final verdict in the Čago et al. case, which imposed a total of 23 years in prison and confiscated illegal property gains amounting to around 7.5 million BAM, making this verdict the largest in the history of BiH in the field of financial crime, reports the Patria news agency.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH, the prosecuting attorney, professional associates, and investigators in the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime, and Corruption, who worked intensively on the case against Čago Fahrudin et al. for several years, assessed the imposed verdict as a huge step forward for Bosnia and Herzegovina in the fight against financial crime and tax evasion.

The verdict covers six natural persons and three legal entities (companies). The first defendant, Čago Fahrudin, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while the other defendants received sentences of 7 years, 2 and a half years, one and a half years, and two sentences of one year each.

This verdict imposed the largest sentence for organized crime, tax evasion, and money laundering in post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina, and since a number of properties and movable assets were frozen during the proceedings, this will facilitate the collection of fines.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH made enormous efforts in detecting and proving financial crime on a massive scale, and after the court proceedings, the prosecutor's efforts resulted in convictions for all defendants.

This case was led by prosecutor Ismet Šuškić, head of the Economic Crime Department, who specializes in prosecuting financial crime and is a recognized expert and educator in the fight against financial crime in BiH and the region.

This verdict confirms the commitment of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH to the fight against organized crime and tax evasion, which damage the budget and thus all citizens of our country.

This verdict, along with the Kekerović case, represents exceptional results of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH in the fight against organized crime, corruption, and economic crime.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH expresses gratitude to partner agencies, the Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA) of BiH, and the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) for their cooperation in this case.

We continue the decisive fight against organized crime, corruption, and tax evasion, in order to prevent and punish perpetrators of these criminal acts, confiscate illegal property gains, and return money to the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to strengthen the rule of law, and this verdict is a message to all who commit these criminal acts that our country has the capacity to detect, prosecute, and punish them.