VMRO blames Zaev over a large IPARD grant to one of his businesses

The Zaev business empire is directly linked to the corruption scandal involving the write-off of 2,000 tons of wheat from the state strategic food reserves. According to VMRO-DPMNE spokesman Valentin Manasievski, former Agriculture Minister and Zaev confidant Ljupco Nikolovski directed a large EU supported IPARD grant toward one of Zaev’s companies.

The write-off of the wheat worth 800,000 EUR was essentially a present from Zaev and Venko Filipce to Nikolovski. Afterwards, he repaid Zaev by awarding a grant of 1.4 million EUR to Zaev’s Trgoprodukt company, which manages the well known Mamas brand. This was the second largest IPARD grant at the time. We call on state prosecutors to investigate this case, said Manasievski.