Ivo Skoric on Thu, 1 Aug 2002 18:28:02 +0200 (CEST) |
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[Nettime-bold] Re: Fikret Abdic |
I disagree with the allegation that he did not cook the books. Actually, within the parameters of former Yugoslav pseudo- communist economy, he was engaging in the same type of business as the CEO-s of Enron, Adelphia, Kmart, Worldcom, Tyco, Global Crossing, Qwest and other big US corporate names whom we saw fail later: he was overstating the value of his company (Agrokomerc) to potential investors and lenders, taking their money and giving them worthless paper in return (we did not have stocks and shares, but we did have some sort of bonds) and he did that with their probable aquiescence. I forgot exact figures, but he "defrauded" Slovenian bank 'Ljubljanska Banka' for a substantial sum. It is true, however, that his fall from grace was precipitated by the political change in former Yugoslavia. Pozderac family politically protected Abdic's fraud in exchange for Abdic's support to their political power. Ljubljanska Banka gave money to Agrokomerc knowing that they would never see that money again, because it was in the interest of Slovenia to prop up Bosnian capacities, whether in reality or just on paper. Abdic built a strong Bosnian company - the fact that he did so fraudulently, meant nothing to local political leaders like Pozderac - quite on the contrary. Milosevic, however, who did and protected others who did similar things like Abdic in Serbia, found it useful to destroy Agrokomerc for three reasons: first, by destroying Pozderac's power base, he removed the only strong political figure from Bosnia still from the Tito's era on the federal scene, and with this weakened Bosnia politically (the other one - Bjedic - died in a suspicious plane crash); second, by calling Abdic's bluff, and making Agrokomerc "junk-bonds" affair public, Milosevic did not only hurt Agrokomerc, but also Ljubljanska Banka, which had to admit publicly huge losses (by then carefully hidden) and was nearly forced into bankruptcy by Agrokomerc collapse, and Ljubljanska Banka was the closest competitor to Beobanka (formerly chaired by Milosevic) on former Yugoslav banking services market, and also staple of Slovenian economy - therefore Milosevic also destabilized Slovenia by smearing Abdic; and third, with Abdic removed, Agrokomerc ceased operation, depraving Bosnia of its own food processing plant, and making it more heavily dependent on Croatia and Serbia for food. It is like those big corporations here that gave a lot of money to Democrats and now file for Chapter 11 under the Republican administration. It is therefore very strange that Abdic co-operated with Republika Srpska during the war. It seems illogical. Abdic was actually supposed to replace Izetbegovic, which never happened and there was some ill blood between him and the SDA. But in reality his Velika Kladusa enclave (area big like Lichtenstein) was completely surrounded by Serbian forces, and he traded its independence for co-operation with Republika Srpska (which was interested in keeping Bihac, because of its military potential). As a hedge, Abdica had excellent relations with Croatian government. Agrokomerc sold its products in Croatia, Abdic kept an apartment and an office in Rijeka, etc. Finally, when Izetbegovic's troups (balkansnet.org/bihac.html) took over the enclave, Abdic and his followers went in exile in Croatia. The followers were ultimately stranded on the road and eventually returned to Bosnia, where Izetbegovic granted them amnesty, but Abdic was given protection of Croatia. It is unclear to me why would Croatia want him in prison NOW. I would actually like to see Abdic testify in The Hague - because little is known about Milosevic's criminal deeds BEFORE 1991, when he was destabilizing the country and destroying political leadership of other republics and provinces (Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Vojvodina, Kosovo) in order to obtain majority in Yugoslav presidency... ivo Date sent: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 00:36:22 -0400 Send reply to: International Justice Watch Discussion List <JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU> From: Miroslav Visic <visic@PIPELINE.COM> Organization: New World Disorder Subject: Fikret Abdic To: JUSTWATCH-L@LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU I meant to post this: > Andras Riedlmayer wrote: > > > Fikret Abdic, a.k.a. Babo ("Daddy"), had already served time in jail (for > > fraud) before he became the wartime leader of a self-declared autonomous > > mini-state in northwestern Bosnia. > It was not fraud. His "guilt" was that he was issuing his company's debt, just like any American company does. Unlike typical American CEO, he however didn't cook the books. The only reason he was in jail was political fall of his mentor Hamdija Pozderac, who was Vice President of Yugoslavia in late 1980s. Mr. Pozderac was a victim of Milosevic's smear campaign with an ultimate goal to destabilize Bosnia. _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold