- Published: 04.11.2022.
Relevant institutions will deal with all those who violate or evade sanctions
Millennium Promocija, Croatia's integrated market communications agency, said on Wednesday evening that Saif Alketbi of the United Arab Emirates had purchased a 43.4% stake in the Dutch holding Fortenova Group, the sole shareholder in the Zagreb-based Fortenova Grupa d.d., and that the transaction was closed on Monday 31 October.
Fortenova Grupa d.d. immediately said it had no knowledge of the sale of Sberbank's stake, and the next day the Croatian government said it had no official knowledge and had not been involved in the transaction.
Matušić said that the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs had responded to the query from the Croatian Ministry saying that the Dutch authorities had not received any request or issued any approval for the transaction.
"The transfer of ownership cannot be done without the approval of the competent authorities of the Netherlands, and we believe of Croatia as well. We consider this transaction illegal and inconsistent with the sanctions regime, because Sberbank's assets have been frozen, it is included on the EU sanctions list. Any use of these assets, or their sale, would require approval from the authorities of the countries which are competent for such transactions. This means the Dutch authorities and, in our opinion, the Croatian authorities because the assets are in Croatia," Matušić said.
He pointed out that no clearance to that effect had been issued by the Croatian authorities either. "No one requested such approval from us nor did we know about this until the transaction happened, and we could not have such information," he added.
Matušić wondered how the Croatian authorities could have even known about a transaction from a country that is under sanctions and that has declared Croatia a hostile nation. "On the other hand, there is this UAE national, a private individual who apparently paid 500 million euro for something for which he did not even request due diligence, who does not know what this company does and who did not seek any contact with the company or its co-owners."
Speaking of the sanctions regime, Matušić said that both Sberbank's assets and property rights are currently frozen. Transactions could have been made by 31 October, but only with the explicit approval of the authorities of the countries competent for this transaction.
Matušić said that the UAE national had not contacted any of the Croatian authorities, including the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (HANFA), banks and the Ministry of Finance. He said that Croatia had received notification from Sberbank saying that the transaction had been carried out, and that the entry in the commercial register shows that Saif Alketbi has become the owner of Sberbank's stake in Fortenova.
Matušić said that Croatia does not have information whether this transaction was indeed done, which is a matter between the legal person and Sberbank, and that it will not suffer any consequences for the transfer of stocks because they do not have the necessary approvals from the Dutch and Croatian authorities.
He told the press that the law entails punishment for all those who violate or evade sanctions, and that the relevant institutions would deal with that.
However, he underscored that first it had to be determined whether any of the European or Croatian citizens were involved, adding that there were indications that some Croatian citizens had taken part in the process.
"I cannot say more, but there are indications that a number of Croatian citizens have also assisted in evading the sanction regime," Matušić said.
Text: Hina/MFEA