Croatia has arrested five people, including a top lawyer and a senior manager at national oil and gas concern INA, suspected of having organised a scheme to resell INA’s natural gas to third parties at a premium and splitting the profits.
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All the suspects were named by the national media, although not by the special anti-graft police, Uskok, in line with its standard practice of withholding full names until indictments are raised. Uskok provided other details of the case in a statement.
The two top suspects were named as Damir Škugor, head of INA’s natural gas retail department, and Josip Šurjak, head of Croatia’s national bar association. So far, they have not commented.
According to Uskok, the five, who have all been placed in custody, are suspected of selling INA’s natural gas to a small local company owned by one of them at a fixed price of €19.46 /MWh, well below the market price.
The company would then sell the gas to foreign-based third-party buyers at regular market prices up to €210.26/MWh.
The five have thus made a profit of around €171 million between June 2020 and August 2022, Uskok said in the statement, adding it would ask the court to keep all five in custody.
Energy consultant and former CEO of INA, Davor Štern, told Večernji List daily newspaper that the responsibility also lies with the current management of INA, its chief financial officer and internal auditors.
“It is impossible that only one person from INA was involved, it is simply impossible to siphon off that much money without others in the company having noticed it,” Štern said, adding that INA’s management system was weaker than before “and the question is also where INA is being managed, in Zagreb or in Budapest”.
Hungary’s MOL is the largest shareholder in INA with a 49.08% stake, followed by the Croatian government with 44.84%. The two have been at odds over management rights, priorities and visions and have accused each other in court of failing to fulfil contractual obligations. ■