“If until today I was not sure whether there was any criminal activity behind the Gen-I energy company transfers, now I know for sure, based on today’s episode of the show Tarča (Target) and Helbl’s statements,” said the former head of the criminal investigators, Dušan Mohorko, after a recent episode of the show Tarča, where the Balkan corruption dealings of the Gen-I energy company were discussed. One of the guests on the show was also Maks Helbl, the current President of the Management Board of the Gen-I energy company, who was tasked with justifying the obvious corruption and the money transfers of millions of euros of state money, who claimed that the Slovenian headquarters has limited access to the business records of the Serbian subsidiary. If the aim of the show Tarča was to save Robert Golob, according to insiders, Helbl’s statements were very telling.
Former Director of the Criminal Police and lawyer Dušan Mohorko said that from a forensic point of view, there is a high probability that a crime has been committed by the Gen-I energy company. “And the basic rule is: it does not matter for the criminal proceedings how the police found out about the events.”
He said it was misguided to try to obscure the Gen-I case by spinning the issue of who reported the crime, as former Director of the Office for Money Laundering Prevention, Klaudijo Stroligo, another guest on the show Tarča, suggested. Stroligo pointed out that the Slovenian Office for Money Laundering Prevention had leaked information about illegal transactions and that no internal measures or investigations had been launched. Mohorko said that usually, the best information is obtained from opponent and competitors, for which the criminologists are most grateful. “And the fact is that in the run-up to the elections, we received a lot of reports, anonymous reports… Which is nothing new or unusual. If the information was concrete enough, an investigation was also launched.”
Maks Helbl, President of the Management Board of the Gen-I energy company, started off by saying on Tarča that he was happy to explain everything regarding the allegations, whereupon the presenter reminded him that they could have already done this ten months ago by calling a press conference. He assessed that this whole thing is a political construct and, when asked why they do not simply show the contract, said that it was not in their domain – even though Gen-I was transferring state money to a subsidiary. Apparently, he had the task of convincing the public that the Slovenian headquarters had limited access to the business records of the Serbian subsidiary (?).
Helbl believes that Berishaj was not paid enough
When asked why the Gen-I energy company paid so much money to a politician, Martin Berishaj, for consulting, Helbl said that Berishaj was familiar with certain situations in politics and was thus able to provide the necessary information on the energy market (Kosovo, Albania, Montenegro) at any time, based on his knowledge of the situation and his connections. The President of the Management Board of Gen-I even said that Berishaj was not paid enough.
Millions in state money
The host of the show Tarča summarised that the money transfers to Berishaj came from Serbia. Specifically, from the Belgrade branch of Gen-I, which is a company with four employees that turns over hundreds of millions of euros a year and which does not even have its own sign on the building where it is based. On the 14th of January 2015, Berishaj set up the company MB Consulting in Kosovo. Less than a month later, on the 11th of February 2015, the first money transfer was made from Belgrade. Gen-I transferred a hefty 66,500 euros to the newly opened company, which employed only Berishaj. Two days later, Berishaj withdrew 50 thousand from the account. A month later, another inflow of just over seven thousand euros from Belgrade came. The day after the transfer, Berishaj withdrew just under three thousand euros. In April 2015, another hefty transfer: 22 thousand euros. A few days later, he withdrew 18 thousand. And so on. R – withdrawal, remittance – withdrawal. Another example highlighted by Tarča: in February 2016, the transfer amounted to 92 thousand euros. However, from the analysed lists of transactions, it appears that Gen-I Belgrade has transferred a total of 1.5 million euros to the Kosovo company MB Consulting alone. According to Tarča’s analyses, around 1.2 million euros in cash was withdrawn from the account of Berishaj’s company.
In the past, Mohorko was already certain that Golob would influence the Gen-I investigations
“I will just say this about Robert Golob. As State Secretary, he came to the Celje Police Department and behaved as if he were the police chief. He tried to give orders and influence the work of the police. This person does not bring anything good to politics,” was a December 2021 tweet by Dušan Mohorko, a lawyer and former Director of the Slovenian Criminal Police, before Golob became Prime Minister. One year later, we are witnessing exactly what Mohorko wrote then and reiterated recently.
Sara Kovač
