Fikret Abdic
Ivo Skoric
ivo at reporters.net
Thu Aug 1 18:32:14 CEST 2002
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 at LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>
From: Miroslav Visic <visic at PIPELINE.COM>
Organization: New World Disorder
Subject: Fikret Abdic
To: JUSTWATCH-L at 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.
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