As Boki 13’s “charity” defends its actions, calls are made to investigate where did the money go

Officials from the International Association (IA) – a “charity” organization set up by Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 which is suspected of being used for money laundering, began a public spat with journalist Branko Geroski who raised much of the allegations against them.

In his latest editorial, used to disclose details from the investigation, Geroski names the top people in the IA and discusses their ties with leading SDSM party officials, including the party’s second in command Radmila Sekerinska.

Unofficially I’ve learnt that Jasna Mandik, who was one of those who came up with the idea of building retirement homes, is an interesting person and is close to Radmila Sekerinska. I’m not insinuating anything about Mandik’s indirect ties with Sekerinska’s husband Bozidar Jankovski. Also, put aside the fact that Marija Jankovska, one of the founders of the International Association, is Sekerinska’s sister in law. That too can be just a coincidence. But, given these unfortunate coincidences, I think that Sekerinska owes us an explanation whether these ties maybe contributed to having Mandik appointed to the National group for implementation of the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities? This makes Bojan Jovanovski’s right hand person a member of a Government institution. Was this a part of the plan to elevate the International Association and allow the company to receive the huge payments it got?, Geroski writes in a public rebuke of Sekerinska.

The Association, according to Geroski, managed to collect about a million euros from two major construction companies. The money are believed to be a bribe to help the developers avoid legal trouble, a payment for using its political ties to secure permits for lucrative development or a combination of both. One of these companies is Pelister from Bitola, owned by Siljan Micevski, which paid over 700.000 EUR and promised to pay 700.000 more, for a broadly defined services contract signed with the IA. The other company is Drim Build from Struga, owned by Adrijan Amzovski, who is reportedly asking for the 230.000 euros he paid back with interest, claiming that Boki 13 violated his contract.

Following Geroski’s claims, the International Association issued a press release signed by its deputy chairwoman Jasna Ercegovik, who calls them “unsubstantiated and not serious”.

In the interest of meeting our goals, the International Association entered into contracts with two well regarded domestic companies. This created the first private – NGO partnerships in maecdonia. The funds which were paid as part of these projects were used exclusively for the purposes of the Association, in accomplishing the two contracts. We want to point out that the payment made to the account of one of our coordinators and planners of the project, L.T., was already the subject of an investigation by the Financial police and state prosecutors, who determined that it was done in accordance with the law and the investigation was stopped. All delays in the meeting of our goals were for purely objective reasons and were not the fault of the IA or our project coordinators. Up to this day, no IA member or a person connected to us was not interrogated for allegedly illegal activities, the association founded by Boki 13 said in its press release.

Geroski replied to this calling for an investigation into the flow of the money paid by Pelister and Drim Build to the International Association.

I believe that the Financial police and the state prosecutors will quickly change their minds, Geroski told the Kanal 5 television.

He called out Sekerinska, but also several other SDSM party officials, who were members of the association, such as Frosina Remenski and Kostadin Kostadinov, to disclose their ties with Boki 13. Geroski also called out Transportation Minister Goran Sugareski and the party’s former Secretary General Aleksandar Kiracovski, while insisting that Prime Minister Zoran Zaev didn’t know about the extortion and influence peddling, but should have known and should insist that the scandal is investigated promptly.