By: Sara Kovač (nova24tv.si)
Boštjančič conducted business with a company based in the tax haven of Belize and was apparently involved in fictitious transactions. His actions also raise suspicions of money laundering.
A few months ago, our portal revealed that Finance Minister Klemen Boštjančič, who is currently facing a no-confidence motion, had been actively involved in and even transferred funds to an account of a company registered in Belize through his 100%-owned firm, BRIO Consulting Center Ltd. Belize is recognised as a tax haven. Recently, the Office for the Prevention of Money Laundering (OPML) in Slovenia published a list of countries with a high or increased risk of money laundering or terrorist financing. Belize, a small country in the Caribbean, is on this list and is notorious as a destination for tax evasion, the concealment of corporate ownership, and other financial malpractices.
Belize is also included on the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (FURS) list. Moreover, Finance Minister Boštjančič himself, under the 15th paragraph of Article 8 of the Corporate Income Tax Act, published a list of countries where the general or average nominal corporate tax rate is below 12.5%. According to the OPML, such countries pose a higher risk for money laundering or terrorist financing.
List of Non-EU Countries with Corporate Tax Rates Below 12.5% (Source: Office for the Prevention of Money Laundering)
In 2015, Klemen Boštjančič transferred nearly €31,000 to IBIS Global Support and Resources Ltd., a company based in the tax haven of Belize. Online information about this company is scarce, with all ownership details concealed. It is known that individuals with similar company names operate globally to obscure financial transactions through complex ownership structures. The name “IBIS” frequently appears in tax havens like the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Panama, and Aruba – all jurisdictions flagged for high money laundering and financial crime risks. Companies under this name have surfaced in investigative reports, including the Panama Papers, Pandora Papers, and Bahamas Leaks.
Boštjančič is clearly involved with fictitious transactions
After reports surfaced about his dealings with the Belize-based company, Boštjančič faced numerous questions, particularly about the nature of his cooperation and the €31,000 payment. At the time, Boštjančič explained to the pro-government outlet POP TV that the payment was for pilot training: “In this case, I collaborated with the American company Ibis Global, based in the U.S. state of Washington, which was also the recipient of the funds for the mentioned service. This company also provided the details of where the payment for the service should be sent, specifically to one of their subsidiaries,” he explained.
In his response, to which POP TV and other pro-government media naturally offered no reactions, Boštjančič appears to have dug himself into a deep hole and even lied. He stated that “the recipient of the funds was the company Ibis Global, based in the U.S. state of Washington.” This is simply untrue, as records confirm that Boštjančič transferred funds to IBIS Global Support and Resources Ltd., headquartered in the tax haven of Belize, at 76 Dean Street, Belize City. The payment recipient was therefore an offshore company in Belize, not a U.S.-based company in Washington. If Boštjančič had a contract or agreement with the American company for business cooperation, the payment details would have been clearly specified in the contract. However, take note! Boštjančič claimed that he worked with a Washington-based company, which then informed him to send the payment to a different company in the tax haven of Belize. Boštjančič, who describes himself as a top manager, followed through without hesitation. Importantly, based on the invoice he paid to the Belizean company, this was for a service that the company, according to Boštjančič, did not actually provide, as he himself asserted that he collaborated with a Washington-based company. This represents a clear case of a fictitious transaction and a fraudulent invoice. The Belizean company issued an invoice for a service it evidently did not perform for Boštjančič, as the finance minister clearly and unequivocally stated that he worked with a different, American company. Boštjančič, now the finance minister, knowingly and intentionally paid a fictitious invoice issued by a company for a service it evidently did not perform. He was fully aware of this, as he explicitly acknowledged it. By doing so, he knowingly and intentionally participated in a criminal act, as he knew that the invoice from the Belizean company should not have been paid due to the lack of legal and business grounds. Under no circumstances should the funds have been transferred to a company that evidently did not perform the service.
A tax expert warns that such cases typically involve mechanisms of suspected fictitious transactions, tax evasion, and money laundering. These manoeuvres obscure money flows, making it extremely difficult – if not impossible – to identify the true purpose of payments and, crucially, who and why someone is the recipient of the funds. In judicial and tax inspection practices, the most pressing questions revolve around whether the goods or services were actually delivered.
Boštjančič has also failed to prove to the public that he genuinely collaborated with IBIS Global Support and Resources Ltd. from Washington, although this point has become irrelevant. Interestingly, companies with a similar name appear not only in Belize but also in another tax haven – Gibraltar. Gibraltar is listed by the Slovenian Office for Money Laundering Prevention as a jurisdiction with strategic deficiencies in preventing money laundering and terrorism financing, thus posing a high risk in these areas.
What stands out further is Boštjančič’s public claim that his company paid for pilot training, despite BRIO Consulting Centre Ltd., his company, having no employees – let alone pilots – who would justify such a business expense. He has never explained, nor been able to explain, which pilots were involved, if any.
IBIS Global Support and Resources Ltd. deleted from Belize Business Registry
Another noteworthy fact is that IBIS Global Support and Resources Ltd., registered in Belize, was deleted from the country’s business registry this year, according to Belizean authorities. The company was listed under registration number 150496. Indicators suggest that the owners, aware of investigations into such companies, decided to quietly dissolve these offshore entities, further erasing records of past business activities.
At the address of Boštjančič’s business partner from Belize, there is a vast network of offshore companies. Among them is a convicted tax evader, the notorious Croatian lawyer Plešo, a friend of Zoran Janković, and the convicted Aleksandar Vasiljević, a persecutor of Janez Janša.
How and in what way the companies under the name “IBIS Global Support and Resources” are interconnected, if at all, is still under investigation. It seems to be a complex network of companies whose operations are anchored in tax havens. At the address of Boštjančič’s partner company, Damir Sudić and Maksim Štrajcer also have an intricate network of offshore companies – Nordsford Ltd., Bolisford Ltd., Denevian Ltd., and others, which are part of a sprawling network under the umbrella of Greenfield Inc. Almost all of the companies in this web are registered or otherwise connected to tax havens.
In our revelations a few months ago, information surfaced that individuals from Slovenia, associated with the business networks of the transitional left, were behind the company with which Klemen Boštjančič did business. Among them were Damir Sudić and Maksim Štrajcer, whom we have already mentioned in our previous reports. In their network of companies, we also discovered the notorious Davorin Tepeš, a supporter of Milan Bandić, the former mayor of Zagreb, and a close friend of Zoran Janković. After the revelation of his company in the British Virgin Islands, Tepeš tried to portray himself in Croatian media as not having established a company in this tax haven, despite the fact that his name appears in the Panama Papers. His expensive hunting exploits in exotic countries around the world demonstrate his lavish lifestyle.
The duo Sudić-Štrajcer also has in its network the well-known Croatian lawyer Miroslav Plišo, who several years ago paid off part of the three-million-euro debt that Jure Janković owed to Marjan Pišljar. His company Big Step from Hong Kong transferred as much as 1.2 million euros to Pišljar at that time. Miroslav Plišo, Damir Sudić, and Maksim Štrajcer are connected through a joint company, Thillay Limited, from the British Virgin Islands.
Sudić and Štrajcer, who have a complex network of offshore companies at the same address as the company with an apparently fictitious business for financial minister Klemen Boštjančič, are also linked to the convicted tax evader, former president of the Izola Shipyard Tomaž Jeločnik, who is now the director of Adriamedia, part of United Media of Dragan Šolak. Jeločnik has admitted his guilt in the tax evasion case. A few years ago, police conducted several house searches in the Izola Shipyard and other locations, detaining three individuals, including Jeločnik, who was then the head of the company. The investigation was triggered by findings from the inspection by the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, which had flagged irregularities.
In the network of Sudić and Štrajcer, while researching the vast web of companies, we also found Aleksandar Vasiljević, the recently convicted head of the former Yugoslav counterintelligence service (KOS), who was also the leader of the military prosecution in the JBTZ trial against the four in Slovenia. Vasiljević was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison by a court in Osijek for crimes against Croatian civilians and war prisoners in camps in Serbia and Croatia. The court found him guilty of crimes committed in 1991 in camps in the cities of Begejci, Stajićevo, Sremska Mitrovica, Niš, and Stara Gradiška, where, as the commander of the security administration of the former Yugoslav Federal Secretariat for National Defence, he appointed his subordinates to lead the camps and sent several officers to interrogate the prisoners. According to the indictment, he knew that his subordinates, as well as members of other units, were torturing and killing Croatian prisoners, but did nothing to prevent it or to punish the perpetrators. The court also conclusively established that the camps were run by Vasiljević’s subordinates, even though the official commanders of the camps were members of the then-Yugoslav People’s Army (YPA).
Boštjančič must resign
In light of the new revelations, Boštjančič no longer has the credibility to hold the position of Minister of Finance, as the primary guardian of legality, efficiency, and transparency in public financial operations in the country.
To this day, Boštjančič has failed to explain for whom he paid for pilot training services in the tax haven of Belize, while admitting that the supposed service was provided by another company in the United States. Moreover, he acknowledged that he apparently paid a fictitious invoice for a deal that the company from the tax haven of Belize most certainly did not carry out. Thus, he knowingly and deliberately participated in a fictitious business. Our earlier findings revealed that this company, IBIS, does not provide pilot training services at all.
Is the “Belize” affair about payment for services, possibly bribes, or even a classic money laundering scheme, involving payments to individuals under the table to avoid paying necessary taxes and contributions? The public is right to ask who is behind these “apparent” services and educational programmes, who the ultimate recipients of this money are, and why they received it. Boštjančič is clearly deeply entangled not only in a network of companies in tax havens; it also seems he is caught in the grasp of a concealed international financial-business network of notorious individuals, operating through fictitious companies in tax havens. This presents a significant security risk that regulatory authorities should not overlook, but clearly, they have. Such suspicions of misconduct, and even another self-report of illegal actions, would not be tolerated by any finance minister in a serious country. Boštjančič evidently already has experience when, during the Litijska affair, he spoke about the activities of an organised group. The opposition leader then labelled him as the leader of this organised criminal group. Our latest revelations only confirm this further.
