STA, 18 September 2019 - Police are looking into three cases of simplified debt restructuring that would allow companies owned by Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković's sons to write off about EUR 29 million in debt. The General Police Administration confirmed the news for the STA on Wednesday.
"Police are checking certain circumstances in these cases and if we find grounds to suspect that a criminal act was committed ... we will act accordingly," the Police Administration said after the newspaper Finance reported on the matter.
The news of the write-off of the debt by the companies Electa Inženiring, Electa Naložbe and Electa Holding, owned by the mayor's sons Damijan and Jure Janković, has provoked public outcry and led to calls to change bankruptcy law.
Simplified debt restructuring was originally designed to speed up bankruptcy procedures for small firms and sole proprietors, but the rules are so lax that even companies with millions in assets, including financial holdings such as Electa Holding, can take advantage of the procedure.
The decisions on simplified debt restructuring for Electa Inženiring and Electa Naložbe have become final, while in the case of Electa Holding, the Ljubljana District Court is challenging the decision in its capacity as a claimant over unpaid court tax. The appeal will now be deliberated on by the Ljubljana Higher Court.
According to Finance, in all three cases, the decisions on simplified debt restructuring had been made thanks to debtor-friendly companies owned by Jan Bec, who has purchased the claims that one of the creditors, Heta Asset Resolution, had to the three companies. Thus he had the main say on the future procedures.
Web portal Siol.net also reported today that the Notary Chamber is checking the work of notary Miro Košak in the three cases. Košak made all the notary work related to the debt restructuring procedures.
The question is whether Košak acted with due care and made sufficient effort to stop the manoeuvres with which Damijan Janković planned to achieve the debt write-offs, Siol says.
Notaries are also obligated to report any suspicion of a crime.
The portal also suggests that Košak must have known that some of the biggest creditors of Electa Inženiring, Electa Naložbe and Electa Holding were in fact controlled by Damijan Janković, which means that the simplified debt restructuring should not be valid.
