[ALBSA-Info] Milosevic aide talks of cash

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Milosevic aide talks of cash
Ex-chief of Yugoslavia's largest bank speaks to authorities investigating 
missing billions


NICOSIA (Combined reports) (AP) - The governor of Yugoslavia's central bank 
said yesterday a key ally of ousted President Slobodan Milosevic had made 
disclosures of cash being taken out of the country during his years in power. 

Yugoslav police are investigating reports that Milosevic and his close 
business associates spun an elaborate web of front companies in Cyprus and 
elsewhere to bust sanctions against Yugoslavia, looting the country in the 
process. 

Borka Vucic, ex-chairwoman of Beogradska Banka, Yugoslavia's largest bank, 
has started talking to authorities investigating the whereabouts of billions 
of dollars, central bank governor Mladjan Dinkic told reporters. 

Vucic, who once headed Beogradska's offshore operations in Cyprus, is a 
long-time acquaintance of Milosevic. The two worked together at Beogradska 
before Milosevic turned to politics. 

Dinkic was in Cyprus yesterday, giving authorities information on suspect 
accounts he said were used by the Milosevic regime. 

"We came with key evidence because one of the key Milosevic bankers, Vucic, 
has started to talk with us and told us the whole procedure," Dinkic said. 

Dinkic, part of a group of reformers that ousted Milosevic last October, has 
said in the past that up to $4 billion was taken from Yugoslavia to Cyprus 
stuffed in suitcases. 

"She didn't mention the figure. That is just our estimation," said Dinkic, 
who replied with a simple "yes" when asked if Vucic had given the information 
about the suitcases. 

But he said he did not know where the money was now. Some of it was spent, he 
said, for financing "social peace, companies, sometimes buying weapons." 

Names and accounts
The Cypriot central bank revoked Beogradska's operating license on the island 
last year, citing insolvency. 

Vucic has told authorities that everything she did was for the benefit of the 
state, Dinkic said. "Our mission is to check (if) the transactions were 
really made for the benefit of the state, which we don't believe at all, or 
if there was some private interest. 

"I think it was mixed. Some operations were made because of sanctions but 
some were made to enrich some of Milosevic's people," he said. 

Dinkic was invited to Cyprus after a barrage of press reports on the island's 
role in breaching the sanctions. He said he had come with "certain account 
numbers and news of offshore companies belonging to non-Yugoslav residents."

He has asked Cypriot authorities to investigate data going back to 1989. 
Authorities in Cyprus have categorically denied it was knowingly a haven for 
illicit Serbian funds. 
"I can tell you that Cyprus was only one of many countries used by the 
Yugoslav regime, it was not the only one," said Dinkic, adding that the paper 
trail also led to Germany, Switzerland, Britain, South Africa and China. 

He praised the attitude of the Cypriot authorities, saying, "I must say 
Cyprus is the first country which undertook the concrete step of 
cooperation." 

At the request of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Cyprus has frozen 
the accounts of six firms suspected of having close ties with Milosevic. 

Last week, the government froze an additional 18 offshore company accounts at 
the tribunal's request, Cypriot Foreign Minister Ioannis Cassoulides said. 

Yugoslavia is also probing allegations that profits from gold sold illegally 
from Serbia during Milosevic's rule was stashed abroad. One of the companies 
named as handling the transactions is registered in Cyprus. 

Authorities have been unable to trace any of the firm's bank accounts, 
official sources told Reuters. 

The United States on Monday urged the Cypriot authorities to cooperate with 
Belgrade and the international tribunal in criminal investigations against 
Milosevic. 
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington was pleased that 
officials in Cyprus had offered to assist. 

"There is some cooperation which is obviously welcome, but we would look for 
the fullest possible cooperation between Cypriot officials and tribunal 
cooperation with Belgrade," Boucher told reporters. 

"It is a matter between Cyprus and the new government in Belgrade, between 
Cyprus and the international tribunal, and between Cyprus and its 
international obligations under the United Nations," he said. 

Dinkic will continue his round of contacts with officials of the Cyprus 
Central Bank and other government ministers until tomorrow. 
(Reuters, AFP)