In 2015, Brio, a company wholly owned by the current Minister of Finance, Klemen Boštjančič, transferred almost 31,000 euros to the transaction account of a company registered in the Central American country of Belize, which is known for being a tax haven. Moreover, the business address of the company to which the money was transferred is a known “offshore” location.
The Minister of Finance is the 100-percent owner of the company Brio Svetovalni center d.o.o. (Brio Consultancy Centre d.o.o.). The company was previously known as one of the sponsoring companies of the media outlet Necenzurirano (Uncensored), through the company SEEM M. & C., which was founded in 2017 by Vesna Vuković, a former journalist of the web portal in question and former Secretary-General of the ruling Freedom Movement party. The company Brio transferred 34 thousand euros to the account of the company SEE M. & C. before the national elections. The company in question, which later changed its name to KCA poslovno svetovanje (KCA Business Consulting), no longer exists.
But this is a well-known story. Yesterday morning, however, an online user on the social network X revealed new information about the company’s business that casts an even longer shadow.
Namely, the Finance Minister’s company transferred 30,940 thousand euros at the beginning of 2015 to a company registered in the Central American country of Belize. The information is available on the Company Wall business database.
The fact that a transaction to a “risky country” took place on the same day (the 19th of January 2015) can also be traced on the ebonitete.si search engine.
A known “offshore” location
We have not been able to locate the company mentioned above, to which the funds from the Finance Minister’s company Brio were transferred, in the Belize business register. The company may no longer exist or may have changed its name. However, even if the company was recorded in the local business register, this would not mean that we would be able to access the company’s business data. Belize is known for allowing anonymous registration of limited liability companies.
However, the location of the headquarters of the registered office of the company in question is public knowledge, as it is apparently a well-known “offshore” location. It is mentioned on the website of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. On the same website (here: https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/235991), you can also read which other persons are linked to this business address (but not necessarily to the company mentioned above), and the list includes, among others, Damir Sudić. This name is not a completely unknown name to Slovenian investigative journalism. In a public rebuttal published by the Požareport web portal and written by Marjan Rekar, we can read that at one time, Sudić (a Croatian citizen) was the co-owner of the spa Terme Čatež through the American company EQT Group. “Since EQT Group has slipped into the so-called friendly quota of co-owners of Terme Čatež in connection with the DZS publishing company, we can reasonably conclude that Damir Sudić is very well acquainted with the Chairman of the Board of DZS and Terme Čatež, Bojan Petan. It is also possible that Sudić is only lending his name to run American companies that have ownership stakes in Slovenian companies (the Komenda business zone is majority-owned by the municipality): on the other hand, this proves that the real owners of these companies in the USA do come from Slovenia,” Rekar wrote at the time. It seems that we are talking about the same person.
The same address in Belize is also the registered address of a company that can be found in the ASB – the business directory of Slovenian companies. Namely, we are talking about the company ADRIAEXPERT LIMITED, which you can see here: https://www.asb.si/43790291–adriaexpert-limited.
On Google Maps, we can also access a picture of the location of the company itself, into whose account Boštjančič’s company Brio has transferred 30,940 euros. It is a big, fenced house.
During that period, Brio did extensive business with the state
The company Brio did relatively extensive business with the state at that time. The ERAR application for the portrayal of public money use in the Republic of Slovenia records that in 2014, the year before the previously mentioned transaction recorded by Company Wall, the company Brio had significant business with the state or the Ministry of Defence. In that year, during the term of the government of Alenka Bratušek, who is now Boštjančič’s party colleague in the Freedom Movement party (Gibanje Svoboda), the Ministry in question was first headed by Roman Jakič (back then, he was also a member of the Party of Alenka Bratušek – SAB), and later Janko Veber (the Social Democrats – SD), who succeeded Jakič in September 2014, when the government of Miro Cerar took office.
As can be seen from the ERAR application, the first big transaction took place in May of that year, before the change of power. We can count six large transactions totalling 322,583.02 euros, with a smaller transaction with Pošta Slovenije (Slovenian Post) of 427.00 euros, making up the difference. Later on, the flow of money to the Brio subsides, with the exception of one major transaction, also with the Ministry of Defence, amounting to over 52 thousand euros (all the data can be seen here: https://erar.si/prejemnik/1689851000#transakcije). To date, the company has earned 417,152.06 euros on account of its business with the state. However, today, the company is no longer doing business with the state.
In light of all of this, it is, of course, also worth noting that the Minister of Finance Boštjančič is “merely” the owner of the company, but not its official representative. This role was taken over in 2008 by the company’s managing director, the Minister’s wife, Eva Boštjančič. She is the same person who was appointed by the government to the Council of the Slovenian National Theatre Drama this year, which we have previously already written about. You can find out more here: https://nova24tv.eu/news/government-appoints-the-wife-of-minister-of-finance-to-the-council-of-slovenian-national-theatre-drama/.
The Minister, a tax evader?
To summarise – a company that is 100-percent owned by the Minister of Finance transferred a large sum of money to a company’s transaction account in a country with a reputation of being a tax haven. The company is registered at an address that is recorded by an international consortium of investigative journalists as an “offshore” location, and there are other indications that this is the case. In the year preceding the transaction, the Minister’s company had extensive business dealings with the state, in particular with the Ministry of Defence.
In light of the above, the public may reasonably suspect that the transaction in question was a case of tax avoidance or even tax evasion, or something worse. For example, tax evasion and, at the same time, the channelling of funds from the Ministry of Defence into the private pockets of those involved in the transactions.
For this reason, we have sent journalistic questions about the matter to the company Brio, as well as to the Ministry of Defence. We asked the company Brio to explain the controversial transaction (what service did the Belizean company actually provide to Brio), and the Ministry to explain its dealings from that period. We will publish the answers when we receive them.
Ž. K.
