The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Corruption are closely following the findings by the media and based on the findings, they have taken additional action for international legal assistance. This was part of the response by the District Attorney of the Republic of Macedonia, while answering our question, “will the outcome of the ‘Magyar Telekom’ case in the US affect the investigation into the case in Macedonia.”
The prosecution said that the case in the country is being conducted by two investigations, one in the PPO (Public Prosecutor’s Office), and the other in the PPO for Organized Crime and Corruption.
The case which is being led by the PPO for Organized Crime and Corruption, is connected to the case which was conducted before judicial authorities in the US and was publicly opened after the testimony was released by the former director of the Administration for Security and Counterintelligence (UBK), Slobodan Bogoevski before the District Court of New York, where he claims that the former directors of “Magyar Telekom” gave a 2.5 million euro bribe to the Prime Minister at the time, Vlado Buckovski, as well as representatives of DUI such as, Ali Ahmeti and Musa Xhaferi, so no one else could enter the telecommunications market in Macedonia.
“We will continue to take action if necessary to clarify and make sense of the event. We conducted investigations into other persons of interest, and submitted a request for international legal assistance from the US authorities, where we repeatedly highlighted that the procedure has been prolonged. The Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Corruption is closely following the findings by the media and based on the same initiated additional actions for international legal assistance”, say the Public Prosecution.
Yesterday, the American Commission for Securities and Exchange stated that former directors of “Magyar Telekom”, Elek Straub and Andras Balogh, who were accused of “conducting secret agreements with the Prime Minister and other people from Macedonia” with the aim to prevent competition in the telecommunications market, came to an agreement to pay fines up to $ 250,000 and $ 150,000.
