Businessman Trifun Kostovski said that the criminal collapse of his Eurostandard Bank will eventually be uncovered. “Crime always leaves a trail”, the oligarch said before the Parliament, after accusing the ruling SDSM party of deliberately destroying his bank.
Kostovski told members of Parliament that the manager he appointed to the bank, Nikolce Petkoski, began approving bad loans without his knowledge, mainly to companies from the area of Strumica, where Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is the undisputed power-holder.

This is a major crime and a lot of money are involved. And money, like the snail, always leave a trail. They are trying to hide the flow of the money using the bankruptcy procedure. If you all want to be involved in a crime, you’re welcome, Kostovski said, accusing Central Bank Governor Anita Angelovska Bezoska of involvement in the case.

Kostovski added that his fault is in not following the circumstances in the bank closely enough. The bankruptcy caused over 60 million EUR in damages to the mutual fund supported by the state budget and other banks to support lost deposits that ended up in the pockets of various companies, some of which are likely purpose made shell companies. A total of 29 companies from Strumica collected 12.8 million EUR in loans and defaulted on them. Governor Bezoska said that she will investigate this curious coincidence further.

Prosecutor Ljubomir Joveski and the financial police chief Arafat Muaremi were in Parliament to present their work so far on the bank collapse.

We are investigating the case and it is up to the prosecutors to decide whether to file charges. There are many companies that are being looked into, and there is already evidence about some of them, Muaremi said.

As Eurostandard had an exclusive contract to manage payments through the Macedonian Post Office, its collapse endangered the entire postal service. The Zaev Government is now moving quickly in an attempt to sell the Post Office with its large network of branches, to a private company, declaring it non-viable.