Authorized officials from the Financial Police Administration in cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), following the orders of a judge of a preliminary procedure and under the direction of the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption (OJO GOKK), today conducted searches of homes, business premises and persons in several locations in Skopje.
As announced by the Financial Police Administration, the action is the result of a previously filed criminal complaint against three employees of the Football Federation of Macedonia (FFM), managers, owners and authorized persons of legal entities, as well as against the legal entities themselves, due to suspicion of multiple criminal acts.
The case includes two former presidents of the FFM, who are suspected of the crime of “fraud in the service”. In addition to them, the head of the Department of Finance and Accounting in the FFM, the head of the Department of Judges and Trials at the federation, 14 managers, owners and authorized persons in companies, as well as eight legal entities, are also charged with “Evil in the service” and “Money laundering and other criminal proceeds”.
According to the evidence from the pre-investigation procedure, the first suspect, in his capacity as the president of the FFM, together with and after a previous agreement with the suspect head of the Finance Department, in the period from January 1, 2015 to July 25, 2018, with the intention of obtaining an illegal property benefit, appropriated funds entrusted to the service in the total amount of 127,451,156 denars.
The second suspect, also as the president of FFM, in agreement with the same manager, in the period from July 25, 2018 to October 10, 2019, appropriated funds in the amount of MKD 53,351,209.
– The suspected head of the Department of Finance and Accounting, in order to conceal the illegal payments to several legal entities, manipulated the accounting records of the FFM. First, she recorded the payments as a reduction of liabilities based on incoming invoices, and then made changes to the already recorded booking orders, erasing the liabilities and recording them as expenses without specifying a specific invoice, service or business partner – the statement of the Financial Police states.
The two former presidents of FFM, although they were obliged to control and ensure the legal and intended use of the funds, approved and signed a total of 728 payment orders submitted by the manager, enabling payment without valid documentation. With this, contrary to the Statute and Rules of the FFM, they caused a total damage of 180,802,365 denars to the federation.
The suspected managers and owners of companies issued invoices with false content for allegedly performed services and delivered goods to FFM, based on which the payment orders were drawn up. The money obtained from the crime was then released into the financial circulation to conceal its illegal origin.
As part of today’s action, according to the instructions of the competent public prosecutor, 12 people have been deprived of their freedom, while five people are currently unavailable to the law enforcement authorities. Additional documentation has been provided by the competent authorities, cash has been seized and electronic devices have been seized, which will be the subject of additional expertise.
Source: MIA
