A financial forensics report presented before the court today showed that there were no transfers of funds from Macedonia to a Belize based company that purchased land near Skopje. This is a key allegation in the trial in which former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is charged with having intermediaries buy the plot of land on Skopje’s Vodno mountain for him. The report was published based on amterials received from Cyprus, after the public prosecutors for organized crime and corruption sought help in the investigation.

The report was presented as part of the defense of Nenad Josifovic, one of the co-defendants in the case. It detailed all transactions, payments and spending, by the Belize registered company Sirah Ltd, in the second half of 2012. It covered the dates, payments and the basis for each transaction.

It shows that a number of companies made payments to Sirah, but none of them comes from Macedonia. It also shows that there are no payments from Nikola Gruevski to the company, or from any other individual from Macedonia.

One payment was made from Sirah to the Sirah Engineering company based in Skopje. The report notes that this payment included the basis the transaction, a document that is required in international financial transactions and is required by law and by regulations of the Central Bank of Macedonia.

The forensics expert explained that international financial transactions are conducted under strict rules monitored by global financial institutions, through corresponding banks from EU member states with the approval of the European Central Bank. The corresponding bank guaranteed the transactions, and conducted control of the transactions both from a formal aspect and from the aspect of origin of funds and the prevention of money laundering.

In this instance, the transaction was conducted as a regular transaction, without additional queries, checks or requests for analyzing the origin of the funds, meaning that it was not seen as suspicious and that the funds were seen to come from lawful sources.
The payment increased the ownership stake of Sirah Ltd in Sirah Engineering. It was noted in the Central Registry of Macedonia, in the registry of direct foreign investments and the company reported the increase in its ownership stake. The Central Bank received a report of the transaction, as provided by law.

The presentation of the forensics report visibly threw prosecutor Lile Stefanova off track, leading to a confused line of questioning toward the financial forensics expert. The very fact that the report was commissioned by the defense and not the prosecution, which should be proving that the defendants made financial transactions, adds to the absurdity of the case and the lack of preparation on the part of the prosecution.

The trial seems based only on suspicion, without actual evidence being presented by the prosecution, and seems to be conducted under a pre-arranged and pre-determined course.

If it was based on evidence alone, it’s doubtful that a properly functioning judicial system would allow the trial to get this far.
Following the presentation of the factual, independent, expert based evidence, such as the financial report, the defense calls for the charges to be dismissed as a prosecutorial fiasco.