Galić is the owner of the Customs terminal Gorica, located in close proximity to the border with Croatia. Two years ago, he was arrested at the Bosnia and Herzegovina-Croatia border while attempting to smuggle heroin. In both of these countries, Galić owns multiple houses, apartments, business premises, land, and several luxury cars. Despite numerous pieces of evidence, he is under the protection of the West Herzegovina judiciary, as well as all tax institutions that, as things currently stand, will forgive him around 2.75 million in unpaid taxes.
In two weeks, on January 21, the legal entity GA-GI d.o.o. Grude, owned by Ivica Galić, previously convicted for drug smuggling, will be released from obligations towards its 60 employees whose contributions have not been paid, as well as from a tax debt of 2.75 million KM owed to the state.
On that date, after five years of “dragging on,” the debt is erased for the obligor, and the case becomes statute-barred. It is almost alarming that the state will not revoke the previously established insolvency and, in favour of the convicted drug smuggler, waive nearly three million KM of accumulated debt.
CONTROVERSIAL PROSECUTORIAL STANCE IN ŠIROKI
As a reminder, as Valter wrote about a month and a half ago, Ivica Galić is the owner of the Customs terminal Gorica, located in close proximity to the Bosnia and Herzegovina border with Croatia, operating at full capacity. Two years ago, he was arrested at the Bosnia and Herzegovina-Croatia border while attempting to smuggle heroin, following which he was conclusively sentenced to two years in prison in the Republic of Croatia.
In these two countries, Galić owns numerous properties: multiple houses, apartments, business premises, land, and several luxury cars. Despite numerous pieces of evidence, this convicted drug smuggler is under the protection of the West Herzegovina judiciary, as well as all tax institutions that, as things currently stand, will forgive him around 2.75 million in unpaid taxes.
According to allegations in the criminal complaint, his accomplice in these “businesses” is the deputy director of the Tax Administration Grude, Slobodan Vukoja, who informed Galić about court blocks and pending debt collections, advising him to transfer the company to someone else or open a new one. He did so by registering a new company, AMAGAL d.o.o. Grude, with an initially fictitious owner, Darijo Pejić. However, after Vukoja's news reports about the same old problems, Galić appointed his son as the new owner.
In other words, the legal entity GA-GI d.o.o. Grude was “fictionally liquidated” at the same time when its owner and responsible person, Ivica Galić, possessed real estate and vehicles worth millions, which the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whether accidentally or intentionally, failed to ascertain.
All of this is stated in a repeatedly amended criminal complaint that various prosecutors have seemingly overlooked. As highlighted by our source, several criminal complaints have indicated that thanks to Slobodan Vukoja, the case was transferred to Široki Brijeg, where investigative authorities intentionally sabotaged and amateurishly verified the allegations in the complaint, according to claims from multiple sources. The goal was to ensure that the verification of the allegations in the criminal complaints did not reveal any criminal activities.
Josip Aničić, the cantonal prosecutor in Široki Brijeg, reiterated his position to our portal a month and a half ago that “the case, in the phase of appealing the order not to conduct an investigation against Slobodan Vukoja and Ivica Galić, will not proceed.”
Aničić is the prosecutor who was “verifying allegations” about Galić's criminal activities and corruption based on criminal complaints.
In a comprehensive response that Valter received from Deputy Chief Cantonal Prosecutor Mladen Hrstić, it is stated that “in light of everything mentioned, the decision of the acting prosecutor is lawful, and the complaint is unfounded.”
“Deciding on the complaint and its amendments, all the allegations presented in them are respected, and through an overall analysis of the complete case file and the challenged decision, no deficiencies were found in the contested prosecutorial decision, nor in the process of making it, which would make that decision irregular or unlawful, or justifiably indicate the need for additional investigative actions in this criminal matter,” concludes the response from the deputy chief prosecutor, who stated that, despite the presented documentation, “there are no grounds to suspect organized crime.”
It is interesting that in the meantime, the Municipal Court in Široki Brijeg has initiated a case against GA-GI D.O.O. GRUDE, file reference 64 0 Mals 068470 23 Kom, but related to “non-payment of municipal services.” Our source emphasizes that this was done to conceal almost three million in tax debt.
“By examining the Regulations on the automated case management system in the courts and comparing it with the number of cases for the company GA-GI D.O.O. GRUDE, it is concluded that the Municipal Court in Široki Brijeg, under file number 64, initiated proceedings against GA-GI D.O.O. GRUDE solely for some small debt related to municipal services,” our source states.
OVERWEALTHY “PENSIONER”
Simultaneously, there is a large amount of evidence of corruption and ownership of significant assets, indicating that the responsible individuals of the company GA-GI d.o.o. Grude, brothers Ivica and Ante Galić, are under the protection of the judiciary and, apparently, also politically.
Ivica's brother, Ante Galić, owns property (full ownership) and land in Blidinje, as well as in the Municipality of Jablanica, Cadastral Municipality Risovac. It concerns plot 2301/17.
Our editorial office has received numerous documents about Ivica Galić's property in the municipality of Grude. Ivica Galić owns a vast 22,430 m2 of land solely in the municipality of Grude. This includes a large house, a huge yard, and other properties such as forests, pastures, and fields. All of Ivica Galić's property is registered in the Land Registry Office, Grude department, under the name and number: Municipality of Grude, Cadastral Municipality Gorica.
He also owns a commercial space at the customs terminal in Grude, within the municipal sports hall, as evidenced by the Sales Agreement, number: 01/1-476-1/01, in Grude, signed on February 28, 2001, by GA-GI d.o.o. Grude, specifically Ivica Galić and the municipal mayor Dobroslav Galić.
In the Decision dated January 24, 2002, issued in the Municipality of Grude, it is stated that the company GA-Gi d.o.o. Grude submitted a request to conduct freight forwarding services on its business premises.
Ivica Galić continues to freely and without restrictions use the business space owned by the company GA-Gi d.o.o. Grude today. Therefore, the question arises of how it is possible that the property of the company GA-Gi d.o.o. Grude is not mentioned anywhere, or how it is possible that nobody is aware of that business space, or perhaps they are aware but choose not to acknowledge it.
So, for the prosecutors, cadastral entries are not evidence from which tax debts could be collected. Deputy Chief Prosecutor in Široki Brijeg, Mladen Hrstić, emphasizes:
“The claims in the complaint regarding the circumstances that the tax administration issued a final decision to write off the debt of the company GA-GI d.o.o. Grude is incorrect. This is because on January 21, 2019, due to the taxpayer's (GA-GI d.o.o.) inactivity for a period of almost 15 years, only a decision on declaring the tax debtor insolvent was made. It should be noted that this decision was not made by the reported Slobodan Vukoja but by another person who held the position of head of the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cantonal Tax Office Ljubuški, at that time. There is a theoretical possibility of the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina making a final decision on debt write-off only from January 21, 2024.”
This response is partly manipulative, as the criminal complaint did not state that a final decision on write-off had occurred but rather that it would happen on January 21, 2024, if the Tax Administration did not enforce the collection of debts, thus compensating both the state and the 60 employees whose contributions were not paid, preventing them from exercising their rights.
For all these years, neither SIPA nor FUP, nor any competent inspection or institution, has taken action.
