The Infomax news site reports that Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce was deeply and directly involved in the extortion attempts against businessman Jordan Orce Kamcev, which are now the focus of the major Racket trial.

Kamcev named Filipce during his testimony, revealing that the Healthcare Minister was present during one meeting with Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 but in a statement that was clearly meant as exculpatory for all Government officials that were touched upon, Kamcev said that the Minister was not blackmailing him. Kamcev also called Filipce a friend and a former employee in his Sistina clinic.

I did a great service to my country today, Kamcev said, as he dropped names of top Government officials but refused to directly accuse any of them

But according to Infomax, which published some of the key findings of the Racket investigation, Filipce played a direct role and had multiple meetings with Boki 13 and Kamcev.

There were concrete proposals during these meetings to use Kamcev’s weak position so that Filipce would ensure his financial situation after the fall of the Zaev Government. The goal was to get Kamcev to sign a public – private partnership with the Healthcare Ministry. Kamcev was being pressured to purchase the 8th of September public hospital in downtown Skopje, and the amount that was asked for it matched the bribe that the racketeers were asking for – 10 millions EUR. The request was that portions of the entire sum are paid before the contract is concluded and are given to Boki 13 for safe keeping. This plan was presented to the businessman as an excellent opportunity to get rid of all the legal problems he had with the Zaev Government. It was legalized extortion, Infomax writes.

Janeva and Boki 13 are standing trial for extorting 1.5 million EUR from Kamcev, as the first down-payment which was given in exchange for going easy on him in the money laundering charges Janeva initiated against Kamcev.

Filipce is already facing private charges in the Racket 2 scandal, where he allegedly tried to prevent the sale of a large dialysis provider to a Swedish company. Filipce and the head of the Healthcare Fund Den Doncev are alleged by the company owner to have asked for bribes to ensure the payments for services given to the public are made on time, and asked for a cut from the sale of the company.