Americans responsible for the Podravka affair

The affair concerning the illegal attempt of takeover of food industry Podravka by the group of its managers (with Podravka's money) is shaking Croatian political and government structures for several months now, and the latest discoveries came as a new cold shower to the public. New results of the investigation that was started last autumn, when almost whole management of once the most respectable Croatian food industry was arrested, show that the secret plan for takeover of Podravka, called Spice, was most likely made by the world's biggest investment bank from the USA - Merrill Lynch.

According to daily newspaper Večernji List, that respectable finance company hired one of the directors of company Fima Ami, Croatian lawyer Zoran Marković, for that job and transferred 10.6% of stocks of Podravka to his company. Merrill Lynch was also the adviser in the privatization of INA, of which majority owner is now Hungarian oil industry MOL.

Upon the discovery that the guarantees for repayment of the loan of 34.2m EUR, which was granted by Hungarian OTP (whose co-owner is MOL) for Podravka's 10.64% of stocks deposited to Fima Ami's account in Malta, included the stocks of INA, the Hungarian side reacted officially for the first time. The Deputy President of OTP Bank's administration, Laszlo Wolf, stated for Croatian national television that the credit contract with Podravka had been agreed "in accordance with the usual banking practice" and explained that OTP had, actually, taken over the contract and all the details concerning the terms and guarantees for repayment of the loan from the first creditor - investment bank Merill Lynch, after they had assessed it was "a safe deal".

What made everything even more interesting was the discovery that the money for OTP Bank's loan was provided by MOL at the time when it was negotiating with the Croatian Government on the takeover of the majority share in INA.

People in Croatia are now of the opinion that Hungarian OTP Bank, under the pressure of the public and the investigation organs in its country, made such statement to protect itself and remove the doubts that it participated in suspicious activities related to the takeover of the control of Croatian petroleum industry and the ownership share in Podravka.

How seriously this affair shook the governing structures in Croatia, one of the results of which was the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polančec, a former manager of Podravka, is best illustrated by the statement given today by the new elected President of the Republic of Croatia, Ivo Josipović, on his tour of Croatia preceding his assuming of the highest position on February 18th. In the talk with the officials of Varaždin, he said the following:

- That affair may hit the foundations of Croatian economy and Croatian national security and that is why it is important that the authorized institutions clear the whole case, determine if there is someone to be blamed for all that, and then punish those responsible adequately.

(Note: complete text is taken over from newspaper Politika of February 11th, 2010)