VMRO-DPMNE spokesman Naum Stoilkovski called on state prosecutors to investigate the allegations that a businessman faced extortion from officers of the state intelligence services. Stoilkovski did not name the businessman, but the statement comes as politically tied construction mogul and FON university owner Fijat Canoski is in the news as the alleged target of blackmail.

According to the reports, sensitive security information held by an intelligence agency was illegally taken out of the service and used to extort money from a well known businessman. The fact that the data, alleging abuse of minors, was not processed by the judiciary but was used for blackmail tells us that Zaev is using all levers of the state for the purpose of his personal enrichment and for political pressures, Stoilkovski said during a press conference.

Canoski, who was also the leader of a small Macedonian Muslim party, once supported the VMRO-DPMNE coalition but their relations soured after the 2010 tax audit which brought down the A1 media empire of his in-law Velija Ramkoski, and the subsequent demolition of a large residential complex being built by Canoski which overstepped its construction permit. In response, Canoski turned his FON university as the refuge of opposition officials, including hiring the former UBK intelligence agency chief Zoran Verusevski, who was allegedly instrumental in the wiretapping scandal and helped create the on-going political crisis. Canoski joined the SDSM party led coalition and participated himself in the Colored Revolution protests.

Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva filed criminal charges against former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, accusing him of unlawfully demolishing Canoski’s complex, and the developer used these charges to demand 58 million EUR in damages. It was recently uncovered that, as part of the racketeering allegations against Janeva’s associate Bojan Jovanovski – Boki 13 , a developer and relative of Canoski paid Boki 13 260.000 EUR. Defendants in Janeva’s case claim that the prosecutor was paid indirectly by Canoski to file baseless charges, and would have divided the eye popping damages Canoski claimed from the state budget.

According to the latest media reports, pushed forward by journalist Branko Geroski who did much of the early reporting on the scandal, a businessman was allegedly blackmailed after tapes showing him sexually abusing underage girls were taken out of the UBK agency.

Who are these close associates of Zoran Zaev who have access to sensitive UBK information, which were given to BOki 13? From what we’ve seen so far, there is no reason not to believe these latest reports, Stoilkovski said.