Kiracovski says he had no idea that his friend Boki 13 is extorting money

High level SDSM official Aleksandar Kiracovski, who was recently dismissed as Secretary General of the ruling party, denied any involvement in the major extortion scandal centered around his close friend Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13. Similarly to Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, Kiracovski also said that he had no idea Boki 13 was abusing their friendship to extort money.

Boki 13 had a number of top SDSM party officials such as party spokesman Kostadin Kostadinov and Frosina Remenski as members of his bogus charity which he was also allegedly using to extort money.

Friendship is one thing, acting outside of the laws another. Neither I nor any of my colleagues have anything to hide. None of is could have imagined what our acquiantance is doing and that will reflect on us. Bojan Jovanovski had hundreds of meetings, as a TV station owner, and as president of the International Association where many honorable, distinguished people were members. Although I was not a member of the Association, I know that a good portion of those members would not think of doing anything illegal, Kiracovski said in an interview.

Kiracovski also denied that the reason he was dismissed as Secretary General of the party was his relationship with Boki 13. Journalist Branko Geroski alleged that Boki 13 was using his friendship with a powerful SDSM officials he nicknamed “Kiki” and “Friki” to extort money from all sorts of businesses and the get party support for his real-estate deals. Kiracovski has denied being one of them. Boki 13 reportedly used his close ties with the SDSM party to pressure businessmen to purchase overpriced ads in his 1TV television, to donate to his “charity” or to simply pay money to avoid being prosecuted b Katica Janeva.

Kiracovski adds that he still has an excellent working relationship with Zoran Zaev, who had him on as deputy leader of the party for four years and main party organizer for two years. Kiracovski also denied being involved in the numerous public sector hirings of his close family members and party activists who were hired while he was Secretary General.