Wealthy lawyer Vladimir Đukanović: "I blacked out, I killed myself from work"

"Djukanovic got the name of Aleksandar Vučić in the franchise. It's on account of that earned a huge amount in the shortest time. "

This is how a lawyer, who did not want us to mention his name, comments on the news that he is a lawyer and member of the SNS Vladimir Djukanovic in a few years of work, he acquired several apartments and parking spaces.

As Đukanović confirmed to BIRN, he is the owner of three apartments in the Voždovac Park Villa Residence with a total area of ​​277 square meters, as well as three parking spaces.

BIRN calls the apartments "penthouses", which Đukanović denies.

In addition, Đukanović confirmed that he owns two smaller apartments in Zlatibor and an apartment in Banja Vrujka.

As he said, he paid for the apartments in Voždovac through his law office and has already paid them off. "It [cost] around 620 euros," Djukanovic said.

BIRN writes that Đukanović's law office reported a profit of around half a million euros from 2020 to the end of last year.

Earnings of a beginner

In an interview with "Vreme", Đukanović calls BIRN's text ridiculous because "they couldn't find anything". He always earned everything honestly, paid taxes, never stole anything. There are, he says, lawyers who earn five times more, but he is now being "strangled" because he is a deputy of the ruling party.

Đukanović is a beginner in business even though he is already 45 years old. This former journalist, radical, long-time member of parliament passed the bar exam in 2016, and became a lawyer in 2018.

When he started selling apartments in Voždovac, he had only been a lawyer for two years.

But Djukanovic says that it is wrong to see him as a beginner in the world of advocacy.

"I have a name and surname in the world of politics, people recognized that." I used to be a lawyer at the bookmakers Meridian and Mozart, that was a reference for me to at least have them among my clients," Đukanović says for "Vreme".

He says it is enough to have ten or fifteen such clients who pay at least one thousand euros per month. For cases before the Special Court, he says, lawyers take about thirty thousand euros each without any problems.

"I could be broke and report everything I get to my relatives." I didn't want that. I reported everything properly because I think I have nothing to hide," he adds.

Our source from the legal profession thinks otherwise. It is possible, says this interlocutor, that the lawyer gets lucky, that there are waves of cases - for example, mass lawsuits against kindergartens, banks, representation of EPS workers - and that a lot of the lawyer's fee is accumulated.

"But it's a mining job, it requires the whole person, there's no time for Twitter, a party... you need a team of people, and they cost money." Even if you work at that pace for three years, you might be able to buy an apartment and replace your car," says this lawyer.

Đukanović repeats for "Vreme" that he was lucky with the apartments in Banjica because he bought them "before even the ash was stuck".

"I took a risk, I blacked out, I killed myself from work." I haven't moved yet, now I need to take care of it."

"Buying Power"

Đukanović accepted well-known cases, representing people close to the regime who found themselves under attack from the judiciary.

As a lawyer, he represents Predrag Koluvia, the first defendant in the "Jovanjica" case, whom he once interviewed like a journalist.

He defended or is still defending Dijana Hrkalović, the former state secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Andrej Vučić, the brother of the President of Serbia and an influential member of the SNS, as well as the former president of the Belgrade municipality of Palilul, Aleksandar Jovičić, who is on trial for the crime of influence peddling. .

Another "Vremena" source says that some clients are ready to pay tens of thousands of euros to be represented by a "big name" connected to the authorities.

"Who knows what items Đukanović has that have not been exposed to the media," says this informed person. "People take it by buying power, by showing who they are and what they are." Who knows how many times Đukanović is the third lawyer in the case, just for the sake of the name. That's always a message to a less courageous prosecutor or judge."

Đukanović says that it is true that people come to him because he is part of the party in power, but, he says, he refuses to represent such people.

"I tell people that it can't be like that." They ask 'so how come you can't finish'. I kick them out of the office. I don't allow that. I always tell them that we have a tough fight ahead of us, and I don't lie to anyone," says Đukanović.

He reminds that Koluvia, as his client, was in detention for a long time and that he is still being monitored. "Wouldn't I be able to arrange for Dijani Hrkalović to leave Serbia if that was the case?"

The opposition strongly criticizes

The opposition also reacted to the news about Đukanović's success in business. The president of the National Movement of Serbia, Miroslav Aleksić, said that Đukanović is a "party lawyer".

"I am shocked by the property he acquired in a very short period of practicing law, which was not possible even for the best lawyers in Serbia," he said.

Marinika Tepić, vice-president of the Freedom and Justice Party, called Đukanović "the lawyer of the leading criminals". "Citizens will one day discover how much the SNS caste robbed the country and profited from corrupt and illegal actions, how all the people close to the 'Vučić Family' became multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires."

Former minister Zorana Mihajlović, who left SNS after a quarrel, says that she would like to hear Đukanović's explanation of how he earned this much money. "Djukanović is aware that it is difficult to answer this question, just as Aleksandar Vučić is aware that people like Djukanović will cost the most," she stated in a written statement.

*in the original version of the article, it was wrongly written that Đukanović passed the bar exam in 2018. He became a lawyer that year, and two years earlier he passed the exam.