Croatia urging dismissal of its representatives on INA's management board

The Croatian members on INA's management board are Niko Dalic, Barbara Doric and Darko Markotic, the government said in a statement on Thursday, a day after economy minister Davor Filipovic said that all board members have to resign amid an ongoing corruption investigation in the oil and gas group.

There are also two Hungarian members of the management board, Jozsef Simola and Ferenc Horvath.

On Wednesday, INA's Hungarian CEO Sandor Fasimon resigned amid a corruption investigation of resale of natural gas by lower-level managers of the company, and the Croatian government announced plans to ban exports of natural gas produced domestically by INA.

Croatia's anti-corruption prosecution office, Uskok, said in late August it has launched an investigation of five individuals and a local company suspected of reselling natural gas belonging to INA, with damages for INA estimated at 1.046 billion kuna ($141 million/140 million euro).

The five individuals are suspected of selling INA's natural gas to the suspected company at prices significantly below market levels between June 2020 and August 27, 2022 in order to then resell the gas to a foreign buyer at market prices, generating an unjustified profit of at least 848 million kuna.

Uskok does not disclose the names of the suspects until indictments are raised. According to local media reports, the main suspects are Damir Skugor, head of INA’s natural gas retail department, and Josip Surjak, head of Croatia’s national bar association, as well as local company OMS-Ulaganje. All five suspected individuals were arrested and some of them will be detained in custody for a month.

INA's shares last traded on Wednesday, closing flat at 3,380 kuna on the Zagreb Stock Exchange.

($=7.520 kuna)