Tovšak is part of an interesting assortment of Slovenian business tycoons, politicians, rich people – all sorts of VIPs who have faced the courts and have been convicted.
The only woman among the then influential CEOs of construction companies, Hilda Tovšak, has thus been released on parole. A few other court proceedings related to her are still pending. The once most influential director in the construction industry, CEO of SCT Ivan Zidar, has also been convicted but not put behind bars yet due to ill health – and will probably never going to be. Zidar even declared a personal bankruptcy. Dušan Černigoj, former CEO of Primorje, spent 14 months in prison in Koper and was released on parole a good month before the end of the sentence. Both he and Tovšak chose to serve as librarians in prison. For the last of his convictions, Črnigoj managed to negotiate for voluntary social service instead of prison, which caused quite a stir among the public. The former tycoons Boško Šrot and Bino Kordež are currently still in prison. Igor Bavčar from Istrabenz company was also sent to prison about a year ago. All have placed to open prison sections with the possibility of occasional exits. The former director of Luka Koper, Robert Časar, is also incarcerated.
The first among formerly influential directors who was forced to go to prison due to economic crime, was former director of the HIT company from Nova Gorica Danilo Kovačič. The President of the Republic, Janez Drnovšek pardoned him despite negative opinions from all competent authorities. After a lengthy trial lasting 14 years, the European Court of Human Rights instructed the Slovenian government to pay 8 thousand euros in damages to Kovačič due to lengthy court proceedings. Plenty of public uproar was also caused by Borut Pahor’s pardon of Bahtijar Bajrović, one of the co-accused with Bavčar in the Istrabenz case.
We also have a group of convicts who have been charged with high fines in exchange for pleading guilty to the prosecution. The highest,1.3 million euros, was paid by Dari Južna, followed by Tomaž Lovše with almost a quarter million euros.
