EkstraVisor: The debts of criminal groups unofficially covered by Slovenian taxpayers

23. marec 2018 ob 10.32 • Ljubljana - MMC RTV SLO

In the second part of the TV show about the Slovenian banking hole, the RTV Slovenija EkstraVisor data-research team revealed that the Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB Bank) gave more than 80 million euros in loans to a member of a Serbian underground criminal organization, Predrag Ranković. Foto: BoBo

Even four years after the second restructuring of the banks, it is still no clear what we, as citizens, paid for as part of the five billion-euro bank restructuring process. Unofficially, among other things we also covered most of the debt in NLB left behind by Predrag Ranković and his Invej company.

The bank found nothing wrong in the fact that a case of tax evasion had been brought against Ranković, and that he was even in jail after the murder of former Serbian PM Zoran Đinđić. In 2012, Invej and a number of other companies controlled by Invej, stopped repaying their loans. In 2014, their debt towards the NLB Group rose to more than 80 million euros. Unofficially, most of the debt in question, around 50 million euros, was covered by Slovenian taxpayers.
10 years after the financial crisis and five years after the restructuring of the banks, there has only been one court decision which has become final - against two former leading bankers, Borut Pesjak and Dušan Valenčič, from the former management of Factor Banka. The cases revealed by the EkstraVisor data-research team are still far from a court verdict, while some of the cases have not even been opened yet by the prosecuting authorities.