English
The Skopje court ordered five of the 13 suspects in the major criminal investigation involving purchase of toxic heating oil into detention, and the rest will have to stay in house arrest or hand over their passports.
The group was raided yesterday and it includes businessmen Ratko Kapusevski and Asmir Jahoski, as well as the former head of the state owned ESM energy company Vasko Kovacevski who has fled the country. The majority of the other suspects are ESM employees who handled the bidding procedure.
Kapusevski and Jahoski sold oil to ESM worth over 167 million EUR, and media reports indicated that the oil was not meeting safety standards and was emitting toxic substances when burnt.
The charges involve rigging the bidding process to ensure that Kapusevski’s company will win the contract, after he teamed up with people close to Jahoski – who is the son of a powerful DUI party member of Parliament Ismail Jahoski.
Prosecutors informed that they have followed a number of transactions conducted after the contract was made, purchases of Mercedes vehicles and bogus loans between companies done in an attempt to disguise the origin of the money leading to additional charges of money laundering.
