Croatian Court Sets Million Euro Bail For Todoric

Zagreb County Court spokesman Kresimir Devcic said the court had decided that former Agrokor boss Ivica Todoric can avoid pre-trial jail by paying a hefty bail sum.

"The judges have altered the decision of the investigating judge regarding bail. They believe that, with appropriate precautions in place, bail can serve the same purpose as investigative detention," Devcic said.

However, questions remained about whether Todoric can stump up the money, or use alternative assets.

"We have no money; we can [offer] real estate, [but] we have some problems with that, as you could see in previous cases of how it goes with real estate," Todoric's lawyer, Jadranka Slokovic, said on Wednesday.

Todoric gave his testimony on Wednesday to the County State Prosecution as part of the investigations into financial malpractice in Agrokor. 

Agorkor's former owner was extradited to Croatia from London on November 7. He was arrested immediately, having been assigned to pre-trial detention.

Many experts said they doubted an indictment would be issued soon, given the complexity of the case and the number of witnesses involved.

The founder and owner of the ailing Croatian company turned himself into police in London in November 2017.

Todoric is under investigation for various types of fraud while he was the owner of Agrokor, which he founded in 1976.

An investigation by the State Attorney's Office in Zagreb was launched in October last year.

The results of a financial review of the whole Agrokor group and its mother company showed that, instead of a reported profit of 160 million euros in 2015, the group had actually run up losses of 480 million euros.

Croatia's biggest private company found itself in financial trouble from...