KS Prosecutor's Office Investigating: Who Prepared the Ground for the Illegal Sale of FDS and How

By selling Fabrika duhana Sarajevo (FDS) to a phantom company from Vienna with two employees, the SDA-SBB and HDZ government, among other things, sold FDS's remaining ownership worth 100 million KM.

The owner of everything became Alexander Walter, a director in over 36 companies and a person linked to money laundering worth several billion KM, which is already the subject of investigations across the EU, writes the Patria News Agency.

However, the Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton has also formed a case within which it is investigating allegations from reports on how preparations were made to create conditions for controlling FDS share prices on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange (SASE).

- The KS Prosecutor's Office has formed a case and the allegations are being verified - Azra Bavčić, spokesperson for the KS Prosecutor's Office, told Patria.

As Patria learns, it all started as part of an operation to gain control of investment funds by an organized group of so-called investors!

The targets were funds that had FDS shares in their portfolio and were not under the control of Aleksandar Hrkač! ZIF Naprijed had long been under the control of the Selimović family, so the operation started with ZIF MI Group.

Thus, in January 2015, Fabrika duhana Sarajevo and a certain Hasen Mašović from Zagreb bought the company managing the MI Group fund, DUF Market investment group, in a 50:50 ratio.

Edin Mulahasanović, director of FDS, was appointed chairman of the Supervisory Board of that DUF, along with another new member, Isan Selimović. Midhat Pašić, the long-time former director of DUF invest, was appointed director.

- In this way, prerequisites were created for the sell-off of the ZIF Mi Group portfolio, in order to extract money for the needs of this group! Liquid shares of the fund were sold, and the money received was used to buy mostly worthless shares owned by the Selimovićs! This is how they obtained the necessary cash, which, among other things, was later used to buy FDS shares at a fixed price, of course, with a cash supplement of unknown origin. A seller also had to be found for the share purchase - our source reveals.

The first major seller was precisely ZIF MI Group. Thus, the newly formed Supervisory Board and the director of DUF issued an order on February 10, 2016, to sell 26,665 FDS shares from the MI-group portfolio at a price of 50.04 KM, even though on January 29, 600 shares changed hands at a price of 51.01 KM.

- The damage to the fund is over 900,000 KM in total, and the same amount is the profit for the new owner, the group from the Supervisory Board of DUF MI Group invest, which issued the order to sell shares owned by the fund's shareholders to their own company, which is hiding behind the custody of a bank! This was the first over 2% of FDS shares collected through capital market manipulation and purchases based on insider information - our source further states.

Then followed numerous transactions at the same price, of course, with a cash supplement at the brokerage house. The condition was, as our source states, and which is the subject of the investigation, that if you want to receive at least another 10 KM under the table, you must commit not to buy any more FDS shares.

- The next major transaction of 22,027 shares at 52.03 KM was carried out on June 30. The former owner of those shares, Sead Babić, found out a few days ago that he lost 639,000 KM because he sold them at that price, and not at the price at which all small shareholders will sell them in the tender that the buyer of the government's package must announce!

Of course, only the naive can believe that the former owner secured himself with an additional black market payment. Those who know him say that he paid 70 KM for those shares, and he was certainly not in any distress. Prices of 50.01, 50.03, 50.04 indicate that the transactions were agreed upon and that this second decimal was used to bypass a buyer who naively believed that he too could buy something at those prices - our source adds.

And so, the same group, through the brokerage house AW Broker, collected about 200,000 shares through more than 200 transactions over six months. Some of those who sold to them and took the cash difference bought again at a slightly higher price than the official selling price and sold to them again.

- The good thing about the stock exchange is that all transactions are permanently recorded. Those who may investigate this as market manipulation, or as purchases based on insider information, or as money laundering, or as abuse of position for personal gain or for the benefit of others in cases where shares of funds were sold, have everything documented - our source reminds.

The same brokerage house sold shares of three companies

It is also interesting that Fadil Novalić's government entrusted the sale of shares of all three companies it is selling, including FDS, to the same brokerage house!

- This is as coincidental as it is coincidental that over two hundred thousand shares were bought from about 200 sellers at a fixed price for as much as 40% lower than the price at which the government sold its package of shares over six months - our source adds.