If it is to be judged by the secret documents provided to the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) by an anonymous source, the current Minister of Finance of Serbia, Siniša Mali, at the time when he was the mayor of Belgrade, was indeed the owner of offshore companies that owned 24 apartments in Bulgaria.
And the viewers who watched the morning National Daily of TV Pink on Tuesday morning learned that some kind of "Pandora's Papers" appeared in the white world, which is the name for the biggest leak of secret data about secret companies with secret accounts and hidden offshore owners. destinations. Viewers of Pink could thus hear that it was about tax evasion and money laundering, that, among others, statesmen such as the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babiš, the President of Montenegro Milo Đukanović, King Abdullah II of Jordan, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the presidents of Ukraine, Kenya, Paraguay or Honduras were or are the secret owners of various offshore companies.
Viewers of Pink, however, did not learn in the morning newspaper that on Wikipedia, right after the list with current and former heads of state and government, on the list of current politicians who, according to the "Pandora Papers", were or still are the owners of offshore companies, in sixth place, between the Minister of Finance of the Netherlands and the political adviser of the former President of Argentina (as of Tuesday morning), already found by the Minister of Finance of Serbia, Sinisa Mali.
The fake Ph.D. was not even mentioned by the host of the morning Pink daily, but that is why it is "expected" that the names of people from the "previous regime" will be found in the "Pandora Papers", which was followed by a ten-minute television tract about the "thief" Dragan Đilas , his brother Gojko and thirty-odd apartments owned by him.
Secret data on 27.000 offshore companies
"Pandora's Papers" is the name given to the largest global leak of data on the evasion of income of politicians, businessmen, athletes, prominent figures, oligarchs or criminals. Data on the owners of 27.000 offshore companies have been collected in one place. In about 11,9 million documents, the founding contracts of so-called companies are listed, which list mailboxes, trust funds, e-mails or accounts as addresses.
This data was provided to the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) by an anonymous source. ICJ forwarded the data to partner media and coordinated the research. The data was then secretly investigated by over 600 journalists from 117 countries. Included were, among others, The Washington Post, BBC, Radio France, ORF, El Pais, Aftenposten, Zeitung Zeitung, NDR and WDR.
The confidential documents come from 14 offshore providers who help their clients set up offshore companies, often in countries with weak money-laundering controls, non-transparent financial systems and low taxes.
Setting up offshore companies is not illegal, but their purpose is often money laundering and tax evasion. The evidence about the secret companies of current and former statesmen especially echoed.
WHAT DOES THE LITTLE ONE SAY?
By Pink's "National Diary" on Tuesday at 13 p.m., the conclusion was obviously reached that it is not worth pretending to be dead, so the so-called Minister Mali came to speak, of course only after the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, opened something again at the beginning of the Diary and announced on that occasion and that the pandemic in Serbia is on the decline.
"I would ask those who deal with that topic to just stop lying because what they are doing does not make any sense." So they can say that I have 240 apartments, or 2400 apartments, there is no difference. "I have an apartment that I have properly registered and where I go on vacation with my children for ten years in a row," Mali said. Of course, he meant an apartment by the sea in Bulgaria.
And then he said that he is not Dragan Đilas, so that he has "tens of millions of euros in various offshore destinations", and that brother Gojko has 35 apartments and that's all, those "Pandora's papers", actually an attack on Aleksandar Vučić, that his they are looking for bills, but they won't find them because they are lying, are they lying, and so on. It remains unclear whether when Minister Mali says that "they are lying" he is referring to those over 600 journalists from 112 countries, or to KRIK journalists who focused on the Serbian beneficiaries of offshore accounts mentioned in the "Pandora Papers", which were filled with money whose origin is unknown.
When asked after the mandatory program "Đilas is a thief" where his signature on the certificates proving ownership of offshore companies came from, Minister Mali said that he had answered all the questions on that topic a few years ago. Admittedly, according to the logic of things, that cannot be true because a few years ago the founding documents of offshore companies signed by Siniša Malog were not available to the public, but that's about it.
photo: Emil Vaš / betaphoto...and Nikola Petrović
AND FROM THE GODFATHER OF TWO OFFSHORE COMPANIES
While Minister Malog was still silenced in Pink's morning program, KRIK journalist Vesna Radojević pointed out in the morning program on TV N1 that now, when the Crime and Corruption Research Network as part of the international project "Pandora's Papers" has "proved" that Minister of Finance Siniša Mali was the owner of 24 luxury apartments on the Bulgarian coast and two offshore companies from the British Virgin Islands, the prosecution has an obligation to launch an investigation.
Viewers of TV N1 also learned that KRIK published a story on Tuesday about the godfather of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and the former director of Elektromreža Srbija Nikola Petrović, who, while he was director, founded a company in the British Virgin Islands through which he was the owner of an account in Switzerland. . Vesna Radojević says that he did not report that account or the offshore company to the Anti-Corruption Agency. The agency confirmed this for KRIK, but Petrović did not want to tell KRIK journalists why he did not report it and what the purpose of that company was.
Vesna Radojević claims that KRIK journalists discovered a few months ago that Petrović secretly founded a company in Luxembourg, "which is an offshore hub in the center of Europe, but which was forced by EU laws to disclose information about the ultimate owners", and that's how they found out that with that company, Vučić's godfather in Serbia was secretly involved in solar energy business "and bought the airline from the controversial businessman Stanko Subotić Canet".
REACTIONS IN THE WORLD
It may be that the "Pandora Papers", which prove global corruption and money laundering and the involvement of many politicians in dirty business, will end up as a media sensation. A more precise probing of the gigantic content is yet to come. Great Britain, Australia and the Czech Republic have in any case already announced the initiation of investigative procedures.
The European Commission has so far reacted with restraint. It is said to be in no position to comment on individual cases. In addition to Babis and Blair, the "Pandora Papers" mention some other names that were or are now closely related to the European Union.
The finance minister of the German state of Hesse, Michael Bodenberg, offered a "central, professional check" of the leaked documents, which would then be made available to the state administrations of the countries whose citizens are covered by the investigation. Of course, if the ICIJ delivers the "Pandora Papers" to them.
TRIED TACTICS
As far as Serbia is concerned, from the affair of illegal demolition in Savamala (in which the mayor of Belgrade at the time, Siniša Mali, was involved), through various scandals surrounding forged diplomas and doctorates (at the center of which was again the current minister Mali), the "Helicopter" affair, " Krusik", "Belgrade on the water", "aunt from Canada", "death at the tollbooth", "Telekom", "Brother of Ana Brnabić", "Belivuk", etc., all the way to Jovanjica, the biggest marijuana plantations in Europe, the media divides the country into two realities. Parts of society divided into consumers of information processed by the regime and information of critical media are increasingly distant from each other.
All previous affairs did not diminish the election results of SNS and Vučić, although some of his closest associates were involved in them. The public prosecutor played dead in each of them (except in the case of "Jovanjica", with the result that Koluvija was released to defend himself), just like the host of Pink's morning diary regarding the mention of the name of Minister Malog in "Pandora's Papers". All previous affairs have been successfully covered with cries of "Đilas the thief" and "domestic traitors and foreign and tycoon mercenaries", so the tactics that have brought victory so far will not change even in the case of "Pandora's Papers" and Siniša Malog.
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