Prosecutors presented receipts and text messages exchanged between the Racket suspects, which show that Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 and his mother blew nearly 150.000 EUR on one shopping spree in Italy. Some of the receipts from the trip to Milan went as high as 10.000 EUR. The prosecution is portraying Boki 13’s well known lavish lifestyle as he is charged with extorting millions from businessmen, but the investigation still hasn’t publicly revealed where most of the extorted money went, as prosecutors are wary of going after high level political figures.

The hearing today revealed some of Boki’s messages with politicians. In an exchange with Deputy Parliament Speaker Frosina Remenski, the fate of businessman Jordan Orce Kamcev is discussed with Remenski telling Boki that he will be detained, to which he replies: “NO”, and she responds “Hope to God you’re right”. Remenski is Boki’s co-defendant in the additional Racket trial that looks into the extortion attempts through Boki’s bogus charity. Boki 13 responded by asking that the phone content is presented in full, and not just selected messages meant to cause sensational press headlines. The shopping spree in Milan came days after Boki 13 took a large payment from Kamcev.

Other messages indicate that Boki was an important figure in the campaign of persecution that was started by the SDSM party as it grabbed power in 2017, mostly due to his close ties to Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva. One set of messages shows Boki discussing the money laundering case Katica Janeva began against Kamcev and other businessman with Dejan Pandeleski, the son of defendant Cvetan Pandeleski, who is the owner of the large Pelisterka plant in Bitola.

See about my father, Dejan writes to Boki 13 at one point, and a few days later tells him that prosecutor Lile Stefanova is not cooperating one some issue related to the trial. Pandeleski then tells Boki that he has “500” of something and Boki later tells him “they arrived”.

Boki included Janeva in his shopping sprees, and the outcome of these trips likely influenced her court cases – Janeva is charged with asking for bribes to sabotage her own trials. In one of their messages, Boki sends Janeva pictures from a furniture set informing her that they have been delivered. Kamcev, on the other hand, is seen telling Boki 13 that he will pawn off two valuable downtown stores to provide money for him.

Meanwhile, Boki 13’s lawyer Saso Dukovski spoke to the press and shared with them a medical report confirming that Boki is suffering from stomach cancer. “This is torture against Jovanovski and we will not allow it”, Dukovski said, demanding that his client is released into house arrest.