Mladjan Dinkic, the Yugoslav central bank governor, who visited Cyprus recently in pursuit of $4bn or more which he says was stolen by ex-President Milosevic and his family and associates, says that initially he is targeting four states, Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Switzerland, but is also asking for co-operation from a number of other countries including the UK, the US and Russia.
Cyprus has consistently denied any major involvement in laundering Yugoslav money, although during Mr Dinkic's visit the Central Bank of Cyprus found one bank account thought to be owned by Milosevic's son Marko. More than 7,500 Yugoslav offshore companies are registered in Cyprus, which is a favourite location for holding companies for Eastern European trading and investment operations due to favourable tax treaties the island has with most Eastern European countries. Cyprus, which invited Mr Dinkic to visit, has been notably more open than other countries about the progress of its investigations.
Supervisors at Greece's central bank are examining customer and transaction records at three Greek banks suspected of doing business with Mr Milosevic. Another three banks, including a Greek-Cypriot operation, are due to be investigated. "We're tightening up," Panayotis Thomopoulos, deputy central bank governor, said in an interview with the Financial Times. "Last year, some banks failed to reply to requests for information about accounts held by Yugoslavs and others gave incomplete replies. We have sent in a supervision team to collect details."
Although the Bank of Greece says it will not release the names of suspect banks, speculation is focussing on the Popular Bank of Cyprus, which has an Athens subsidiary, and was accused of involvement in laundering Yugoslav money earlier this year by Nato. Greece had close historical ties with the Milosevic regime, although it distanced itself from Milosevic during the latter stages of his rule.
The Swiss authorities have frozen 35 Yugoslav-owned bank accounts containing $70m, including one in the name of Mirko Marianovic, the former Serbian prime minister, and are due to send more information to Yugoslavia as it is unearthed.
As to Russia, it is suggested that investments there were made through Cyprus by the Milosevic regime. Takis Clerides, Cypriot finance minister, while on a trip to the US connected at least partially with money-laundering issues, confirmed that Cyprus was one of the top five foreign countries investing in Russia, but he said that most Cypriot investors in the country represented foreign and not domestic interests, such as America, Canada and Western Europe.
Although it is known that the Milosevic regime had access to large sums of foreign currency confiscated from private accounts, received as privatisation proceeds or simply as payment for economic favours, there is no proof that such funds were necessarily stashed abroad. They could as easily have been used in Yugoslavia to import munitions or fuel which could not be obtained through legal channels while sanctions were in place.
As was the case with the money spirited away by Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, most of the Milosevic money may never be found. "We can't find accounts under the name of Slobodan Milosevic and we don't expect to," said Mr Dinkic to the Financial Times.
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