November 6 (SeeNews) - The owner of Croatia's ailing concern Agrokor, Ivica Todoric, said over the weekend he has filed criminal charges against government officials and a US-based fund he is considering responsible for what he describes as 'criminal activities' taking place in his concern.
Todoric has filed the charges with the district attorney's office in Zagreb against deputy prime Martina Dalic, Agrokor receiver Ante Ramljak, co-founder and co-chair of the management board at Knighthead Capital Management, Thomas Wagner, and against the US-based fund itself, he said in a blog post.
The charges were brought for alleged misuse of power, documents attached to the blog post show. According to the charges brought by Todoric, Dalic and Ramljak are suspected of enabling Knighthead to unlawfully make property gains.
Knighthead Capital Management officials were not immediately available to comment.
Knighthead is the top lender under a roll-up arrangement of up to 1.06 billion euro ($1.2 billion) signed by Agrokor in June, according to the list of creditors unveiled by Ante Ramljak last month. The arrangement was signed by Agrokor, over 30 creditors and Hong Kong-based Madison Pacific Trust Limited, which acted as security agent on the deal.
Last week, Croatia's opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) submitted a motion to parliament for a no-confidence vote in the coalition government over the way it has handled the financial crisis in the country's largest private company. SDP leader Davor Bernardic said that the government has allowed an unnamed 'vulture fund' to gain a majority in the council of creditors of Agrokor and to become a co-owner of the concern's assets.
According to Todoric, the fund is Knighthead which purchased a large number of Agrokor bonds in March and April when their price had dropped to a third of their value. The fund, Todoric claims, did not venture into this risky business by chance, rather it was assured its investment would gain the status of a senior investment, meaning that Agrokor would redeem the bonds at their face value.
Also last week, an Europol notice revealed that Todoric has been put on its list of Europe's most wanted fugitives. The owner of Agrokor is wanted by the Croatian judicial authorities for prosecution because of criminal offences under several articles of the country's penal code: abuse of trust in business dealings; violation of duty to keep commercial and business records; forging official or business documents and instigation.
On October 24, Croatia's Chief State Prosecutor's Office said it has issued a European arrest warrant for Ivica Todoric. Croatia's ministry of the interior told SeeNews at the time that upon receiving the European arrest warrant the country's police has launched measures to track down Todoric at the international level.
Todoric, however, has claimed in his blog posts that the Croatian government knows where he is located.
The Agrokor group employs some 60,000 people throughout the states of the former Yugoslavia.
In April, the Croatian government stepped in to prevent the collapse of the indebted food-to-retail concern by appointing a receiver under a special law governing the management of companies of systemic importance for the country's economy. Todoric was stripped of his managerial rights under the law popularly known as Lex Agrokor but remains owner of the concern.