Public Prosecution for prosecution of organized crime and corruption gathers evidence for the case “Actor”, which in March last year, at a press conference, was announced by opposition SDSM, stated representatives of the prosecution from META, after a year of silence, answering the question: Is the investigation of the scandal “Actor” still ongoing?
“Competent Public Prosecution for prosecution of organized crime and corruption is taking measures and gathering evidence necessary to solve the case “Actor “. Given the complexity of the case, the competent prosecution takes actions on gathering evidence necessary to determine the circumstances of the execution of specific criminal-legal event,” reads the answer that the Public Prosecution sent to META.
Crew META yesterday visited the site where the Greek company “Actor” builds highway Demir Kapija – Smokvica. Construction work took place in earnest, and the workers who we found there said they do not know anything about the scandal that shook the company and that they haven’t heard of such a thing.
Last year in March, at a press conference, opposition SDSM presented documents and claimed that Greek citizens, through by the branch of the Greek company “Actor” in the country, withdrew millions of euros in cash from a branch of Stopanska Bank in Negotino.
As SDSM argued at the time, an amount of about 3.5 million euros is concerned. The money, according to their knowledge, has been raised in many cases, the first of which were registered in mid-2013.
The Financial Intelligence Office submitted a report of suspicious transactions to the competent public prosecutor last year. The prosecution said at the time that it initiated pretrial proceedings for the case “Actor”, but then seemed to forget the case and there are no more information on the procedure and the investigation.
That was the case until Sunday, when television “Telma”, referring to the OECD report (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), reported that the Greek authorities have launched an investigation against “Actor” on suspicion of bribing officials in Macedonia to win the tender for the construction of the highway Demir Kapija – Smokvica.
As stated in the report, Greek authorities, for their investigation, which except for bribery is also carried out for money laundering, sought help from the authorities in Skopje, and after they didn’t receive a reply, asked Eurojust to be a “facilitator” in the communication Athens – Skopje (Greek authorities contacted their counterparts in Eurojust to facilitate the request).
“Until this moment, Public Prosecution for prosecution of organized crime and corruption has not received any request from Eurojust for cooperation and assistance in this case. The prosecution has already achieved contacts with the competent authorities of the Republic of Greece after a request for international legal assistance. Given the complexity of the particular criminal-legal event and in the interest of the investigation, the competent prosecution cannot share details with the public,” reads the answer which public prosecution sent to META in connection with this issue.
Greek construction company “Actor”, started the construction of the section Demir Kapija – Smokvica in September 2012, after winning a government tender for construction of the highway, worth 270 million euros, although, as stated in the OECD report, the offer of the Greek firm was 40 million euros higher than those of competitors.
Opposition leader Zoran Zaev, yesterday, in response to a reporter’s question, asked prosecution to state its opinion on the scandal “Actor”, adding that, otherwise, he will announce new materials for the case in some of following “bombs”.
