For the Minister of Finance and former mayor of Belgrade, Siniš Mali, the education of his children in a prestigious private school in Belgrade cost over 235.000 euros - more than double what he could earn from his salary.
The finance minister's children's school expenses were paid with money of dubious origin that flowed from several mysterious offshore companies, KRIK and OCCRP journalists reveal.
Following the trail of money, journalists discover that behind one of those offshore companies Mali himself is hiding, behind another is a domestic businessman unknown to the general public, while the third is closely connected with the international group "Comita" based in Moscow. In Serbia, "Comita" cooperates with the companies of Ivan Bošnjak and Stojan Vujek, the owners "Millennium Team", close to the ruling SNS.
"Our children go to a private school and the expenses for all three children - 60.000 euros per year, are borne by my friends. The friends who finance my children are friends I met abroad, who have no connection with Serbia," said the then mayor of Belgrade in 2016. Sinish Mali in court.
Mali, who recently divorced before that, stated this in one of the proceedings he led against his ex-wife, KRIK recalls. His monthly salary at that time was around 1.000 euros and he could not possibly afford this expensive private school. His ex-wife's lawyer then tried to ask him which friends are paying for the school of the mayor's children, but the judge prohibited this question. The answer remains a mystery, to this day.
KRIK and the journalist network OCCRP are now revealing details about how Siniša Mali financed the expensive education of his three children at the International School of Belgrade. School fees differed from year to year, pre-school and first grades are cheaper than higher grades, and the mayor's children went to school at different years - so seven years of their education, according to KRIK's calculation, cost around 235.000 euros.
How expensive is that?
Annual tuition for just one student costs almost twice as much as the annual salary of the mayor of Belgrade. But that didn't stop Siniša Malog - the current Minister of Finance of Serbia and a close ally of President Aleksandar Vučić - from ensuring that his children attend this elite private school.
In order to achieve this, Mali, according to KRIK, had to supplement his household budget with dubious and non-transparent inflows of money that arrived from various notorious offshore locations. The money for his children's school fees was paid by three mysterious companies registered in states where it is easy to hide their ownership.
However, documents obtained by KRIK and OCCRP journalists - from the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, but also from offshore locations - provide details on how this operation was carried out.
Mali himself is hiding behind one of those companies, as revealed by KRIK - and not his "friends" as he said in court. This company, "Alessio Investment" from the British Virgin Islands, paid more than 130.000 euros to the school. That company, by the way, is connected to a corrupt business from two decades ago - through it, the Mali family illegally appropriated 10 hectares of state land near Vršac, which KRIK previously wrote about.
About 50.000 euros to finance the education of Mali's children came from the offshore company "Avant Trade Technical Limited" from Cyprus, closely related to the international group "Comita" based in Moscow. This group deals with the construction of gas pipelines at the European level, and in Serbia they did business with the sister company of the Serbian construction giant "Millennium Team" - a company already known for its connections with Mali.
Tonight, protests are taking place in several cities of Serbia. In Niš, citizens are protesting against local television coverage, while in Zrenjanin they gathered in support of student Luka Mihajlović
The students of the Faculty of Agriculture in the blockade have announced a blockade of the Aviation Square in Zemun for tomorrow (July 19) at 17 p.m.
The Basic Court in Novi Sad confirmed the indictment of the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office against lawyer Nemanja Aleksić for several criminal offenses
How the unsuspecting Prime Minister Đuro Macut became involved in glorifying the Non-Aligned Movement, implementing a foreign policy that was one of the trademarks of Tito's communist Yugoslavia
The people of Novi Sad continue their protests in front of the houses of progressive officials. Is it "lynching", "pure Nazism" or something else?
Just as Šešelj pulled a gun on the students at the beginning of the nineties, so Vučić pulls his beaters on their rebellious daughters and sons today. It's the same policy, just adapted to the times
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, acquits thugs and madmen who beat and trample students, while arresting those same students. A people in rebellion is no longer guaranteed a bare life - but the guild will pay for this regime in the end
Protests in Serbia no longer impose questions of "whether" and "if", they have become systemic events. Tolerance in society has turned into an insatiable need for normality, for the rule of law
Exclusive: Research by Slobodan G. Marković and Miloš Bešić on the attitudes of Belgrade students in the plenum
What we didn't know about them subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
