The Varaždin County State Attorney's Office (Županijsko državno odvjetništvo u Varaždinu) has filed an indictment with the Municipal Court in Koprivnica against a 47-year-old man from Koprivnica and a 70-year-old member of his family. Both are charged with the criminal offence of money laundering, with the 47-year-old additionally facing charges of forging official or business documents. The accused are linked to frauds worth more than 4 million euros.
According to the indictment, the 47-year-old, who was director of a trading company based in Koprivnica at the time the offences were committed, participated in a fraud that resulted in 4.3 million euros being obtained to the detriment of a German company. The crime was committed between January 2020 and September 2022. The aim was to present false business transactions in order to legalise the money.
The accused transferred a total of 4,096,602.50 euros to the account of a Swiss company on three occasions, acting as the responsible person for that Swiss entity. To justify these transfers, the accused submitted fake invoices to the bank, falsely showing that the Swiss company had sold goods to the Koprivnica company. Subsequently, 839,000 euros were transferred from the Swiss account to the accounts of two companies in Koprivnica, whose directors were the accused and a member of his family.
A large portion of the funds, specifically 3,105,170.47 euros, was transferred to the private account of the 47-year-old. Part of this money was invested in property, with the purchase of three buildings valued at a total of 725,258.27 euros. He also withdrew 447,751.32 euros in cash. Part of the money, amounting to 472,705.55 euros, was used to purchase a house.
The 70-year-old woman, charged solely with money laundering, knew that the house was purchased with money obtained through criminal activity. She accepted the gift of the property from her son to prevent its confiscation by the state. She later sold the property for 40,000 euros, attempting to further complicate the trail of the original criminal conduct.
