By: Domen Mezeg (Nova24tv.si)
“BIA Separations has enough money and time to bring all three cases before European courts, as we are firmly convinced that both Spirit and MGRT acted unlawfully. The Slovenian state will ultimately have to pay several million euros, not to mention the disgrace. A comparison of the mission of Spirit on the agency’s website and its actions clearly shows deliberate and planned intent to destroy the company BIA Separations.” The Slovenian political leadership was informed about this during the time of Šarec’s government. SDH quietly approved the destruction of BIA Separations.
It is known that the National Bureau of Investigation (NPU) is conducting house searches in the area of the Ljubljana Police Department, also in SDH, due to the suspicion of a criminal offense related to the sale of the state’s stake in the company Meta Ingenium to the former owner of Bia Separations. Investigations are also taking place in Italy in collaboration with Italian law enforcement agencies. According to media reports, the alleged illegal financial gain is estimated to be over 14 million euros. The General Police Administration stated that the police are investigating both residential and business premises and other locations within the specified police department’s jurisdiction. The Italian financial police, Guardia di Finanza, is conducting similar activities. NPU is investigating allegations of abuse of position or trust in economic activities, as a state-owned company is said to be the victim in this case.
The criminal offense is alleged to have been committed by three individuals, and the investigative actions currently involve three individuals and legal entities in Slovenia, as well as one individual and one legal entity in Italy. The police state, “The suspected individual, with the intent of gaining an unlawful financial advantage for a company in the area of Italy, abused their position by entering into a harmful agreement for the sale of a business share in a venture capital company at a significantly lower price than its actual value. During this, they were aware that the company in the jurisdiction of the Nova Gorica Police Department, in which the venture capital company had a share, was in the sales process and would be sold at a high value. Two individuals aided in the commission of the criminal offense.”
The cadres of the Social Democrats in the investigation
In the investigation regarding the abuse of position or trust in economic activities, a prison sentence ranging from one to eight years is prescribed. The management of the SDH confirmed the visit of detectives and cited the sale of the company Meta Ingenium in 2020 as the reason. SDH assured investigators that they would provide the necessary documentation and other required information. Unofficially, a house search is also taking place at Boštjan Koler, a former member of SDH management who is considered to be a member of the Social Democrats. SDH had sold its stake in Meta to the German company Sartorius for 1.9 million euros two months before the sale of BIA Separations. A successful sale of BIA Separations would have brought an additional 1.2 million euros in proceeds. If SDH had retained ownership of Meta, it would have been entitled to at least 18 million euros. SDH’s supervisors have determined that the sale did not ensure the highest level of due diligence and that it was detrimental to the state.
The state leadership was informed about the content of the first letter
As previously reported, the founder and director of BIA Separations, Dr Aleš Štrancar, responded to the investigations of criminal offenses with a statement: “I actively alerted SDH to the value of the company, and my written warnings should have been in the SDH archives. They, of course, ignored me.” From confidential sources (the identity is known to the editorial staff), it was learned that efforts were made to resolve disputes in a timely manner between the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology (MGRT), the Spirit Public Agency for Entrepreneurship, and BIA Separations. Communication took place on January 27th and 28th, 2020, during the tenure of Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, who was informed about the content of the first letter, as were some other high-ranking state officials. There were three disputes mentioned. The first one was a lawsuit by Spirit against BIA Separations for 1.2 million euros. The first-instance judgment was in favour of BIA Separations.
It is a deliberate and planned desire to destroy the company BIA Separations!
The Higher Court made a different political decision, and the case eventually ended up at the Constitutional Court. Afterward, MGRT sued BIA Separations for around 60,000 euros. The first-instance judgment was in favour of BIA Separations, but the Higher Court made a different political decision. BIA Separations then filed a request for a review of the procedure with the Supreme Court. Later, they reportedly also filed a lawsuit against the Spirit Agency for the unlawful denial of a project that had received an excellence rating from the European Commission. The lawsuit was said to be due to the already incurred damages (which were still increasing), amounting to at least 2.5 million euros. The court in Nova Gorica confirmed that the Spirit Agency’s actions were unlawful. “BIA Separations has enough money and time to bring all three cases before European courts, as we are firmly convinced that both Spirit and MGRT acted unlawfully.”
“The Slovenian state will eventually have to pay several million euros, not to mention the disgrace. Even a comparison of the Spirit agency’s mission on its website and its actions clearly shows a deliberate and planned desire to destroy the company BIA Separations.” In another message, it can be read that due to the non-award of 1.6 million euros for the EU “Seal of Excellence”, the project’s execution is impossible. Substantial economic damage has already occurred, estimated at over 2.5 million euros. In the case of an inadequate resolution, they would seek justice at the European Court, which would further burden taxpayers.
Sources have also provided us with part of the communication with SDH during the time of the Janez Janša government, dated July 14th, 2020 (a copy of the message was also received by then-Prime Minister Janša). In the message, it is stated, among other things, that BIA Separations expects SDH to resolve the company’s disputes with the Slovenian state in accordance with the proposed compromise. It is further noted that two scenarios are foreseen: one involves a recapitalisation by the main shareholder in the amount of approximately 0.5 billion euros, with Meta co-investing 55 million euros, or reducing its stake to almost zero, or trading the sale of at least a larger investor’s stake for at least one billion euros. As it is known, resignations from the top of SDH followed thereafter.
