By: Luka Perš
Years ago Dnevnik newspaper revealed that in the past the President of the Court of Audit Tomaž Vesel had been convicted in Germany for fraud and then deported. Vesel denied the allegations, but we found a lead that his uncle Anton Urbas was convicted of theft of construction machinery in Germany in the late 1980s. In addition, at least two other people were convicted. With all this, Vesel’s student work on construction sites takes on a whole new meaning.
Tomaž Vesel was born on June 30th, 1967. Today he is 53 years old. In the late 1980s, Vesel went to Germany as a student to earn extra money to study. But as those familiar with the events of the time reveal to us, his purpose was not merely to make money, but to gather information about heavy machinery on construction sites, the work schedule and the protection of construction sites. As we have learned, Vesel was active that summer in the Bavarian area and around the Bavarian capital.
Our source confided in us that, based on Vesel’s information, poorly guarded heavy machinery was taken away and stolen at night or on weekends. The stolen excavators, rollers and trucks were brought to Slovenia and then most of these machines were sold to the countries of the former Yugoslavia. All this was followed by the German police.
Tomaž Vesel’s uncle, Anton Urbas, has already been convicted in Slovenia and Germany as the leader of a criminal group for reselling tractors
Tomaž Vesel’s uncle is Anton Urbas. He was born on July 20th, 1957. According to official data, Urbas now lives in Šentvid near Stična. He is the brother of Tomaž Vesel’s mother. Vesel himself is said to live not far from the home of his uncle Urbas. The other member of the criminal group was Martin Golobič. Both Urbas and Golobič were well-known criminals with an extensive criminal record and were also old acquaintances of the Slovenian law enforcement authorities in the past. At the time German police quickly identified who the main players were in the theft of heavy machinery. In addition to Urbas, Golobič, and Vesel, the story also involved the then truck driver T.P., who was also convicted of crimes in Germany, but more like a collateral damage to Urbas’ vile plans. Like Vesel, he was from Šentvid near Stična.
As we managed to find out, Golobič and Vesel achieved to escape from Germany before the arrest, while Urbas and the driver were allegedly caught in Germany. Golobič was then arrested by the Austrian border authorities at the Ljubelj border crossing, as a warrant was issued against him. He was then handed over to the German authorities. In absence, Tomaž Vesel was allegedly sentenced to deportation or a ban on entering the country of Germany for several years. Urbas and Golobič were said to be serving their sentences in a penitentiary south of Münich. Both supposedly spent between four and five years in prison.
Printing and media tycoon Martin Odlazek became furious when stolen heavy machinery was discovered in his halls
Urbas and Golobič reappeared in Slovenia in 2000 or 2001. As can be seen from the criminal records, both were convicted in the past for a large number of criminal offenses. Thus, Anton Urbas was again convicted of theft. This time due to a large number of tractors stolen in Italy, which were then smuggled into Slovenia and sold to farmers from Dolenjska region. According to our sources from the local environment, the tractors had a very low price, as some farmers in the Dolenjska region bought as many as two tractors. Unfortunately, after the criminal act of Urbas was revealed, they had to be returned or the Slovenian law enforcement authorities confiscated them. Sadly, the money with which farmers paid Urbas for tractors was never seen again.
Martin Odlazek, a printing and waste tycoon, was in a very bad mood when the affair was revealed. Many stolen tractors were stored in Odlazak’s halls. Odlazek had absolutely nothing to do with the theft of tractors. He was merely renting out empty spaces and was very furious at the criminal group, which unnecessarily dishonoured his name.
In February of this year, we also asked Tomaž Vesel about his acquaintance with Mr. Odlazek. He replied that his acquaintance with Martin Odlazek originated from their life in the countryside of Šentvid near Stična. We were interested whether the Court of Audit would start with revision of the business octopus of Odlazek. In the past, the convicted infamous entrepreneur from Dolenjska did not even stop at fraud against the disabled. We also asked Vesel how their acquaintance would affect his independent assessment of the controversial media octopus of Odlazek. “The mission of the Court of Audit is to monitor the path of public money, and the operations of private law entities outside this scope are not within its jurisdiction. The influence of these companies or individuals, who led them or have capital shares in them, is not feasible on the design of the work programme, as the choice of each revision is based on the work strategy of the Court of Audit or with legal obligations,” the Court of Audit replied diplomatically.
Sources revealed interesting information about the work of the Court of Audit during the “afternoon work” for FIFA. Vesel’s core team and other colleagues at the Court of Audit are also said to be very dissatisfied with Vesel’s work. The position at FIFA went to his head. Many times he is not even at work, as he spends most of his time wandering around Switzerland. Employees spend most of their time looking for him to sign urgent documents, which causes additional headaches. Tomaž Vesel will have to quickly decide what means more to him – his work obligations in Slovenia or excellent paid work at the International Football Association.
Construction baron Ivan Zidar “attacked” Vesel and threatened to reveal him because of the affair in Germany
Tomaž Vesel’s career path is presented on the pages of the Court of Audit. It states that he is a graduate of the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. He began his career at the Center of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Informatics, and continued as a member of the National Audit Committee. During the leadership of Igor Šoltes, Vesel worked as the Supreme State Auditor at the Court of Audit.
Our local sources surprised us with an incredible thesis that Tomaž Vesel was also personally acquainted with the fallen construction baron Ivan Zidar. One of the most influential businessmen in Slovenia knew Vesel’s weaknesses very well. In close company, Vesel always spoke with awe about Ivan Zidar. In fact, Vesel was very afraid of the fallen construction baron of Slovenia, as he among his confidants supposedly said “that Zidar (also mason in Slovene) will build him in the foundation” if the Court of Audit investigates him.
In the past, the Clean Shovel affair resonated. In the Clean Shovel case, Zidar, Hilda Tovšak, Dušan Črnigoj, Tomaž Žibert, Ivan Demšar, Borut Farčnik, Srečko Gabrič, and Ivan Kroflič were accused of accepting and giving gifts, or assisting these crimes in connection with the construction of the airport tower in Brnik. All eight already denied the crimes at the investigation stage.
Anton Urbas appears as a key witness in the Clean Shovel affair
In the mainstream media, Anton Urbas was considered the main whistleblower, who supposedly revealed the affair between the connected construction companies SCT, Vegrad, Primorje, and state authorities. However, the Slovenian police never confirmed that Urbas was an undercover police collaborator in the Clean Shovel case. But Urbas himself claimed to have been a German secret collaborator as well. Thus, most understood the statement of the German criminal investigator Gerhard Schaffner that Urbas had told him about SCT and Zidar, and that he himself had returned to Germany the next day and informed his Slovenian work colleague, Robert Slodej. During the affair, Urbas was again imprisoned in Germany for criminal offenses of concealment and forgery of documents, as he allegedly resold stolen tractors and building machinery, Slovenske novice reported. By the Slovenian side, he was supposedly promised that his file would be cleaned and that he will be released from prison, but this did not happen.
Zidar’s legal team in the Clean Shovel affair consisted of the Čeferin Law Office. Thus, at the trial in Trebnje in 2015, Urbas was asked whether the Clean Shovel affair was completely fabricated by criminal investigator Robert Slodej, who sent him to Germany to Schaffner as an undercover police officer so that he falsely charged the director of the SCT in front of him, with which Slovenian criminal investigators began an investigation. Urbas nodded to all these allegations of the defence, they wrote in the Novice newspaper.
Local sources from Šentvid near Stična told us similar quotes about Urbas. Despite being presented as the prosecution’s crown witness, he allegedly said at the trial that criminals obtained information by tricking German colleagues. This is supposed to provide the basis for the implementation of special measures against Mr. Ivan Zidar personally. They also do not rule out the possibility that some important information, regarding the investigation into the Clean Shovel affair, came to Ivan Zidar through Mr. Vesel. Whisperers from Dolenjska region also reminded us of an interesting fact that after returning from prison, Martin Golobič opened a company that was engaged in the activity of controlling the movement of vehicles (tracking the transport of trucks, buses, etc.). Shortly after founding his company, he signed a lucrative contract with no one else but the construction company SCT.
Dnevnik journalist Blaž Petkovič reveals Vesel’s adventure in Germany, but further research on Vesel has been stopped
However, the story of possible indecencies of Vesel in Germany is not new. In 2013 it was first partly mentioned by Dnevnik journalist Blaž Petkovič, but at that time Vesel rejected all allegations. “Nothing is real. It is true, however, that as a student, 20 years ago, I worked on construction sites in Germany for a few months. So that I could cover the costs of my studies. It is not clear to me why this happens every time I run for a new position or when an important report is issued. It was similar in 2003, when I became a member of the court,” Vesel told Dnevnik newspaper during his candidacy for president of the Court of Audit in 2013.
The whistle-blowers mentioned to us that after the publication of Petkovič’s article in Dnevnik newspaper, they wrote all the facts about the business from Germany, but as it seems Petkovič or the Dnevnik editorial board decided not to investigate the story further. Given that the indecencies, according to the testimony of our whisperers, took place in the southern part of Bavaria and around the city of Munich, we also sent the question to the Bavarian Archives, which stores all the judgments of the courts in Bavaria. We will receive their response after the fourth of January, when the Christmas and New Year holidays end in Germany.
We sent questions to the President of the Court of Audit, Tomaž Vesel, by e-mail and to his mobile number. Among other things, we asked him if he might have been in the proceedings or even as a suspect in prison. Unfortunately, we did not receive any answers by the end of the redaction. But Vesel’s silence is more than suspicious, and his student adventure in Germany does not look innocent at all.