During a massively watched podcast show, Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 revealed additional details about corruption at the top of the ruling SDSM party.
In one segment, Jovanovski shared screenshotted messages exchanged between former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and now late Zarko Lukovski, former head of the Macedonian Telekom, who Jovanovski put in touch with Zaev. Lukovski faced investigations from Zaev linked prosecutors and was looking for a way to have the cases dropped – and Zaev played along, connecting the businessman with his top henchmen.
Their communication continues to the point where they discuss percentages Zaev is supposed to take, through his Secretary General Dragi Raskovski. At one point another Government official, Vladimir Cvetkovic, was involved, and he also tried to extort money from Lukovski. The messages show Lukovski asking Zaev who to talk to from the two Government officials who are shaking him down, and Zaev responds – “Best go with Raskovski”, said Boki 13, sharing the screenshots that Lukovski sent him. “They put the man in a vise, they demanded he funds 5-6 projects, one of them was worth at least 25 million EUR, with the potential of 4 million EUR to be shared between them”, Jovanovski added, citing his discussions with Zarko Lukovski, who died in 2019 from illness exacerbated by the persecution and extortion he faced.
Raskovski faces several criminal investigations and was recently cited in a US black list report as Zaev’s “lieutenant” in a different corrupt communication with a Montenegrin businessman.
In other messages, it was revealed how Vice Zaev, Zoran Zaev’s brother, was involved in appointing top prosecutors who would then continue to go after the political opposition and businessmen singled out for extortion. Vice Zaev’s choice was openly partisan prosecutor Vilma Ruskoska. In an exchange with prosecutor Naum Panovski, he reveals to Jovanovski that the original version of Ruskoska’s prosecution in the major April 27th trial was deeply flawed. The trial was used to pressure members of Parliament to vote for the imposed name change, and a dozen protesters are still held in prison over it.
Jovanovski also testified that, at one point after the Colored Revolution in Macedonia, Serbian opposition officials such as Zoran Djilas, would come to his TV station and to meet Zaev, asking to copy the model of the protests they organized, and to replicate it against President Aleksandar Vucic.
During the much watched podcast, police raided Jovanovski’s home in Skopje. He said that a notorious mobster close to SDSM, Zoran Mileski – Kiceec, was threatening him after his first podcast, threatening him with a car accident.
Jovanovski also shared evidence of politicians contacting him as head of the short lived pro-SDSM TV station 1TV, demanding favorable coverage. In one message, former state security chief Saso Mijalkov asked Boki 13 to cover attacks against current VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski from a former party official close to Mijalkov.
Jovanovski announced that after the elections on Wedneday he will approach state prosecutors and share all the recorded communications he has with SDSM party officials with state prosecutors.
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