January 24 (SeeNews) - The Belgrade commercial court has opened a trial against lender Komercijalna banka [BEL:KMBN] and eight former managers on charges of violating of the law on money laundering prevention and financing of terrorism, local media reported on Tuesday.
The prosecution found evidence that in 2013 and 2014 the bank and its former managers did not provide correct data on the opening of correspondent accounts of a bank based in a country that does not apply international standards for the prevention money laundering and terrorist financing, daily Politika said.
The list of defendants includes the former president of the executive board of Komercijalna banka, Ivica Smolic, executive board members Dragan Slantovac and Slavica Djordjevic, as well as managers Milana Milutinovic, Mila Nicovic, Vladimir Marevic, Mihajlo Kosanovic and Ljiljana Milosevic.
In a separate statement e-mailed to SeeNews by Komercijalna banka on Tuesday, the lender explained that the legal actions were requested by Serbia's central bank, NBS, and that the accusations are mainly against its former management.
"Komercijalna banka has fully cooperated, and will continue to do so, with the investigating authorities in the economic crime trial against the responsible persons of its former management," the lender said in the statement. "The new management of the bank has taken all necessary actions in accordance with the law and its internal procedures in order to resolve the case."
"Moreover, the new management is working actively to uncover all irregularities in the work of the former leadership of Komercijalna banka, which had a direct impact on the operating result of the largest bank with state ownership," the bank added.
Smolic resigned in 2015, while Santovac, Djordjevic and Milutinovic left the bank in 2016. The executive functions of the other defendants in the trial have been reduced and some of them have left the bank, Komercijalna banka explained.
Komercijalna banka's managers were also accused of not acting in accordance with the law when opening correspondent accounts of Bosnia and Herzegovina-based MF banka, Podgorica-based First Financial Bank, as well as when they opened an account of the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Serbia, Juma Rashed Saif Zayed Aldhaheri, Politika reported.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is on the list of high-risk and non-cooperative jurisdictions of intergovernmental organisation Financial Action Task Force (FATF), set up to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism.
Moreover, in the case of three transactions from an account of Serbian conglomerate Delta Holding, owned by tycoon Miroslav Miskovic, to an account of lawyer Zdenko Tomanovic, the managers of Komercijalna banka failed to request from the parties involved all the necessary information, the prosecution said.
Furthermore, Komercijalna banka did not request full information on the transactions of Tomanovic to Cyprus-based Mera Investment Fund Limited, British Virgin Islands-based Hitomi Financial Limited and to an account of controversial Bosnian deal broker Damir Fazlic in US-based Citibank NA in April 2014.
Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands are on the "gray list" of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of countries that can be considered tax havens, but are committed to improving transparency and establishing effective exchange of information in tax matters.
Komercijalna banka is a member of the BELEX15 blue-chip index of the Belgrade Stock Exchange. The bank's share price increased by 0.54% and closed at 1,690 dinars on the stock exchange on Tuesday.
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