By OCCRP
When the Serbian government privatized ZMAJ, a maker of farm equipment, they said it was a way to bring investment to an important sector of the economy. Economists saw the sale as a next step toward modernizing the strategically important company.
And a group of accused criminals, respected businessman and a former cabinet minister saw it as an opportunity to make a lot of money.
Police say factory was owned by alleged money launderer but farmers are caught in the middle.
By Centers for Investigative Reporting in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia
A month after police closed the Bijeljina Sugar Factory they said was bought with laundered drug money, farmers and villagers who had gambled their future on the plant face catastrophic loss of a season of crops. And the local region is threatened with the loss of an important buyer and employer.
By OCCRP
Serbian businessman and fugitive Zoran Ćopić sat in a coffee shop in the Bosnian town of Banja Luka last week and told reporters for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) that he fled his adopted homeland of Serbia because he was falsely accused and didn’t want to rot in prison.
It appears he should have run a little further.