“Milović, about whom the former Slovenian police chief Lindav revealed that he sat in on all of the meetings about the protection of Prime Minister Golob, even though he was not authorised to do so, is, therefore, a long-time mercenary of Golob. The Prime Minister’s explanations that Milović was giving free advice were, therefore, a mere fabrication. According to what we now know, the circle of Golob, Ribič, etc., had in the past paid off Milović with contracts worth at least half a million euros for his private company. And this is a conservative estimate, so the real figure is probably much higher. Milović’s contracts were with state-owned companies, so this is public money we are talking about. As the article reveals, these are identical samples of contracts with different companies, and any evidence that “consultancy services” were indeed provided is, as we know from before, scarce or practically non-existent. Therefore, suspicions that the contracts are fictitious and that this is possibly a case of money laundering are also well-founded,” said Mayer, the Editor-in-Chief of the media outlet Planet, summarising the findings so far.
It has now also officially been confirmed that Miloš Njegoslav Milović, the mysterious former special agent and bodyguard of Prime Minister Robert Golob, had no less than seven controversial contracts or annexes with the Gen-I energy company, which Golob used to run. It is also known that Milović also protected former Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek in the past. The company VPS Svetovanje (VPS Consulting), which is half-owned by Milović, signed seven contracts or annexes with Gen-I between November 2013 and October 2017, i.e., while it was still headed by Golob. This was confirmed to the media outlet N1 Slovenija by the office of Mojca Prelesnik, the Information Commissioner. Last November, the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS) MP Žan Mahnič raised the issue of Milović working with the Prime Minister with a parliamentary question. The SDS MP wanted to know whether the Prime Minister had indeed arranged his security differently than his predecessors by amending the regulation on security, which transferred the Prime Minister’s security from the police to the General Secretariat of the Government. He also wanted to know whether Milović was also in charge of security.
Golob defended himself, saying that this was a method of security used by former Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek and that his security was not the responsibility of Milović, but of the General Secretariat of the Government. He also denied that Milović was employed by the government in any capacity. This happened at the time when the Prime Minister and the former Minister of the Interior, Tatjana Bobnar, parted ways, and she eventually resigned from her post and is now employed in the office of the President of the Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar. At the time, Golob admitted that he and Bobnar had parted ways, among other things, because of the issue of protection for him and his family. Then, a photograph of Golob and his child in Brussels on the 23rd and 24th of June last year appeared in public, which Golob used as an argument in defence of alternative security. He went on to explain that this was why, on the 28th of June, an amendment to the regulation transferred the Prime Minister’s protection to the General Secretariat of the Government.
Bobnar and then-acting Director-General of Police Boštjan Lindav saw this as a vote of no confidence in police work. However, Lindav revealed that the decision to change security was taken much earlier, the day before the Golob government was appointed (namely, on the 31st of May 2022). At that time, Lindav was with Bobnar at the Prime Minister’s office, where he met Milović for the first time. On the 3rd of June, the first meeting between the Police Protection and Security Centre and the General Secretariat of the Government took place. The topic of the meeting was the revision of the regulation in question. The next meeting took place on the 9th of June, and Milović was present throughout the whole process, which was particularly controversial for Lindav, as Milović was not an employee of either the police or the government. The authorities’ refusal to appoint Lindav for a full mandate finally led to a rift between Bobnar and Golob. All this has raised the question of who is paying Milović, since Golob claimed that Milović had advised him free of charge.
On the day of the election victory, he was at the Freedom Movement’s headquarters
Some of the ministers from the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje svoboda), to which Milović gave security advice, including Minister of Health Danijel Bešič Loredan and Minister of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning Uroš Brežan, have also said that he advised them free of charge. Milović also acted as an advisor to the municipality of Komenda. However, the municipality has not yet paid Milović anything, and Milović has defended himself by saying that the work is not yet finished. The topic of their discussion was the closure of the Suhadole landfill site. The Komenda Mayor, Jurij Kern, has also been avoiding giving any explanations for months now. The Freedom Movement party also claimed that Milović had never been paid for anything. It is already known that Milović was at the Freedom Movement headquarters in Cvetličarna in Ljubljana on the day of the party’s election victory. His presence at the door led many to believe that he was there as a security guard, a claim that the largest ruling party denied. His informal advice to government representatives has also been investigated by the Internal Affairs Inspectorate.
However, the case was dropped because it was not about private security advice but about advice to the state. In addition, Milović defended himself in the Supreme Court by saying that he likes to help with small things and that he does not charge for that. Milović was also paid, at least in the past, by some energy companies, such as Elektro Ljubljana – between April 2011 and October 2021 (308 thousand euros). At the time, the company in question was managed by Andrej Ribič, later one of the founding members of the Freedom Movement party, who said that Milović’s services were a business secret. After Ribič’s departure, the new CEO, Marjan Ravnikar, terminated the contract with the “security guard,” describing his services as unnecessary, saying that they did not know exactly what Milović was doing for the company. Meanwhile, Milović’s company received more than 122 thousand euros from the Slovenian Power Plants Holding (Holding Slovenskih elektrarn – HSE). The contract was concluded in April 2011, when the Holding was headed by Matjaž Janežič, who, just like Milović, lives in Kamnik.
“This is the same pattern of payments as we saw with Vuković, and very likely also Cirman.”
The Slovenian Power Plants Holding and Milović’s company worked together until August 2015. Milović’s contracts with Elektro Ljubljana and the Holding are almost identical. The hourly rate was 80 euros excluding VAT, with 25 hours per month of legal assistance in the area of corporate and security advice to be provided to each of the companies. Thus, Milović’s company received a total of 440 thousand from both companies, but the amount it received from Gen-I is not yet known. Bojan Požar commented on this by saying: “It is the same pattern of payments as in the case of Vesna Vuković (and very likely also in the case of Primož Cirman, given the proven fact that he was the last owner of the parallel company created by Vuković), with money from a state-owned company, with the signature of Robert Golob, who is now the Prime Minister. These are, in fact, quite chilling revelations, ripe for pre-trial proceedings ex officio.”
Domen Mezeg
