Prosecution cleared Golob, but confirmed Gen-i criminal affair, even Vučić now has Golob in his grasp

By Bojan Požar

This was a "happy day" for the Prime Minister and the head of the Freedom Movement, Robert Golob, as the specialized state prosecution officially closed the "Balkan front" for him (Source: Zanima.me). Technically speaking, this is true; Golob was cleared of possible criminal prosecution for Gen-I's incriminating activities in the case of the controversial Kosovo diplomat and businessman Martin Berishaj (controversial payments totaling 1.8 million euros), which would allegedly be the "mother of all Golob's scandals," given that the Serbs are supposed to deal with it.
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"In the present case, suspicion of committing the criminal offense of abuse of position or trust in economic activity under Article 240 of the Criminal Code-1 is being investigated. After the pre-criminal procedure was carried out, it was shown that there is a suspicion that the criminal offense was committed by a person who is a citizen of Serbia and who is currently in the Republic of Serbia.

Since the Republic of Serbia does not extradite its citizens and because there is a suspicion that the criminal offense was committed on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, where the prohibited consequence occurred, and that all relevant evidence is located in the Republic of Serbia, it was necessary to forward the case to the competent authorities of the Republic of Serbia with a request to take over criminal prosecution. Due to the interest of the investigation and the protection of personal data, we cannot provide you with further information."

The contract with Martin Berishaj was signed by Borislav Antolić, who is employed at Gen-I Belgrade as a financial advisor. He told us by phone that he could not give statements without his employer's consent.

Igor Koprivnikar managed Gen-I Belgrade at the time of cooperation with Berishaj. He told us by phone that we should contact the public relations department at Gen-I with questions related to the prosecution's proceedings. Similarly, the office of Prime Minister Robert Golob responded to us. Gen-I emphasized that they have no information about the proceedings. Gen-I Belgrade repeatedly paid over two million euros to two of Martin Berishaj's companies with the same name - MB Consulting. One was located in Kosovo, and the other in Montenegro. Berishaj withdrew almost all the money - 1.8 million euros - in cash immediately.

However, at the same time, the following happened, which is extremely important: the Slovenian prosecution thereby de facto confirmed Berishaj's and Gen-I's criminal affair, which some of us – journalists and media – reported on even before the parliamentary elections (and for which we also found ourselves in the infamous retaliatory parliamentary investigation – first led by Freedom MP Mojca Pašek Šetinc, and later, when Pašek Šetinc was expelled from Freedom, by the almost "crazy MP" Tamara Vonta). Golob and his associates have always denied this until now.

Furthermore, the prosecution now also enables the discovery of the genesis and reconstruction of this – criminal – case. For what we are publishing below, of course, we emphasize that we do not (yet) have evidence; it is only hypotheses, perhaps even fiction, but also testimonies from sources and documents. However, it is very well-founded to assume that this is indeed how it happened:

• Borislav Antolić, a financial advisor employed at Gen-I Belgrade, of course, did not sign it on his own initiative. Given the formal and unwritten management structure of Gen-I, he almost certainly did it in agreement with the director of Gen-I Belgrade and long-time member of the Gen-I management board, Igor Koprivnikar, and he almost certainly ordered him to do so based on an agreement with Golob, then CEO of Gen-I. To think that these deals and that money passed Golob by, of course, is a fairy tale for small children (or for the most loyal voters of Freedom).

When the case came under the scrutiny of the police and the competent prosecution, Golob's inner circle suspected that Koprivnikar – as acting CEO of Gen-I – would break under the weight of the police-prosecution investigation, so they quickly replaced him with Maks Helbl, a lawyer from Gen-I who was clearly even more loyal and steadfast towards Golob, while his wife Barbara Kolenko Helbl became the Secretary-General of Golob's government. Who Helbl actually is and how he functions, the general public could see in February 2023 – on the show Tarča, while Golob is still actually running Gen-I.

• Koprivnikar, just in case, even had to mysteriously and temporarily leave Gen-I, and could only return, again to the management board, after Golob's inner circle had the matter (read: police investigation) under control, primarily within the police and the National Bureau of Investigation.

Golob operated with reports and information from SOVA all this time, skillfully packaged into other operational and analytical cases.

• The matters in the police were very likely handled by Golob's NPU director Darko Muženič (which is why Golob personally and explicitly demanded Muženič's return to the head of NPU from Boštjan Lindav and Tatjana Bobnar), Vesna Vuković, then Secretary-General of Freedom, Damir Črnčec, State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense, and Boštjan Poklukar, an obedient, loyal, and at the same time incompetent Minister of the Interior, who just yesterday survived an interpellation.

Incidentally, during yesterday's interpellation, Poklukar did not deny or comment on the allegations of Freedom MP and former insider Mojca Pašek Šetinc, who said that the police leadership (NPU) replaced the group of investigators who were investigating this case and replaced them with another group to keep the matter under control, and she also mentioned the never publicly explained visits of Vuković to the NPU.

• A larger part of the money (so far we know it was at least 1.8 million euros), which Berishaj received from Gen-I Belgrade for "mediation in political review" and which he regularly withdrew in cash, very likely went to illegal bribery of local politicians in Balkan countries, with the aim of obtaining state and state-owned energy contracts for Gen-I. For the Freedom election campaign (before the 2022 elections) as well as for Golob (let's recall, some sources suggest that he transferred this money further to Italy) and Koprivnikar. Nothing is completely excluded.

Martin Berishaj is reportedly facing an indictment from the Kosovo prosecution.

GOLOB IN VUČIĆ'S GRASP

However, in this prosecutorial epilogue, it is important to know something else: Golob, alongside the Mayor of Ljubljana Zoran Janković, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, and former President Milan Kučan, is among the key protagonists of the so-called "Serbian world" in Slovenia.

But, in the future, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić could even have Golob directly in his hands. "In his grasp," as the Serbs say, while we would say he holds him "by the balls." And it is easy to assume that the elected "scapegoat" Borislav Antolić will tell the Serbian investigators, or rather the Serbian secret services, everything he knows, if he hasn't already. Some even claim that Antolić, even before joining Gen-I, was already working for these structures.