Croatian prosecutors issue arrest warrant for Agrokor founder

Croatian prosecutors issue arrest warrant for Agrokor founder
By bne IntelliNews October 23, 2017

Croatia’s State Prosecutor’s Office (DORH) has issued an arrest warrant for the founder of troubled food and retail giant Agrokor, Ivica Todoric, amid an ongoing investigation related to financial irregularities uncovered at the group after it entered restructuring.

Agrokor, Croatia’s largest company which employs around 60,000 people in the region, is undergoing restructuring after a debt crisis pushed it to the brink of collapse earlier this year.

An audit report recently showed that the Agrokor Group’s net loss in 2016 amounted to HRK11bn (€1.46bn), while the company’s liabilities amounted to HRK56.3bn. The report also showed undisclosed liabilities amounting to HRK3.9bn.

Last week, the police raided the house of Ivica Todoric, and questioned several former executives in the company. However, it was unable to locate Todoric, who keeps communicating only through his blog.

Now the warrant has been issued, “All further actions are now a matter of police work,” a DORH spokeswoman said according to Reuters. 

Todoric wrote he will return to Croatia once he has compiled the relevant evidence to defend himself.

“I am not running away from responsibility, but as I have said if there is any responsibility, and I am convinced that it isn’t, then it is only mine. However, as a man whose human rights have been violated, with my team of lawyers I am gathering evidence and facts in order to be able to contend with the lies in the lawsuit and defend myself and my associates from political persecution, the aim of which is to cover the fact that politics has hijacked private property and is today [ruling] with anarchy and crime,” Todoric wrote on his blog.

While lately there has been speculation in Croatian media that Todoric is in London, now there are now rumours that the Agrokor founder is in Switzerland, according to Hrt.hr.

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