Owner of Croatia's Indebted Agrokor 'Had Financial Control'

A former executive from the ailing Croatian conglomerate Agrokor, Mislav Galic, was questioned at the state attorney's office in Zagreb on Tuesday and presented a document which allegedly shows how all the major financial decisions were made by company's owner and founder Ivica Todoric.

Galic, who was a member of the executive board of the mother company Agrokor d.d., which was responsible for the conglomerate's food business, was arrested alongside several other former Agrokor executives on Monday.

Galic was also the president of the executive board of Agrokor's water company Jamnica and president of the supervisory board of Agrokor's ice cream company Ledo.

Galic's lawyer Dubravka Krklec told media on Tuesday that Galic was the person responsible for making major financial decisions at Jamnica and Ledo, but not at Agrokor d.d., which runs the whole group.

"Mislav Galic completely denied any connection to financial decisions in which he didn't participate, since meetings of the Agrokor d.d. executive board were not held," Krklec said.

She said this meant that Galic could not take part in approving financial decisions.

"As part of his defence, Mislav Galic also handed over a document confirming the allegations in his defence, stating who actually was in charge of making financial decisions in Agrokor. This was definitely not Mislav Galic," she said.

When asked by a journalist if the person in charge was Todoric, Krklec agreed.

Galic was arrested in a large-scale police operation on Monday, in which Todoric's residence in Zagreb was searched, along with the homes of former senior officials.

Six former members of Agrokor d.d.'s executive and supervisory boards were arrested.

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