The employees of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MVEP), Davorin Goleš and Ivica Bariši, admitted on Thursday that they had withdrawn money from EU funds through false travel orders and were sentenced to seven months of imprisonment each in exchange for community service at the Zagreb County Court.
After the settlement with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Zagreb, Goleš and Bariša were also deprived of the illegally acquired property benefit of around 12,700 euros, which they had previously paid into the budget. In addition, both must pay 2,100 euros in court costs.
The EPPO charged Goleš and Bariša with forging hotel invoices on at least ten occasions from July 2020 to September 2024, in which they entered false information about the recipients of the invoices, the number of nights and accommodation costs. They then attached such falsified invoices to official travel orders, all in order to fraudulently obtain compensation for travel expenses.
According to the EPPO, the duo was paid 25,385 euros on the basis of falsified documents, of which 13,367 euros were to the detriment of the EU Internal Security Fund, and 12,017 euros were to the detriment of the state budget of the Republic of Croatia. The prosecution accused Goleš of illegally keeping 12,716 euros for himself, and Bariša of 12,668 euros.
Riječ is about the branch of the MVEP affair, which, in addition to the EPPO, was also investigated by Uskok, which in early July of this year filed charges against five officials of the ministry. That group was accused of damaging the state budget by 3,582 euros by falsifying travel expenses. The prosecutor’s office then reported that the five aged between 37 and 57 were charged with committing criminal acts of abuse of position and authority.
The indictment accuses the defendants of drawing up false invoices in which they untruthfully showed increased accommodation costs, as MVEP officials, after official trips abroad, from March 2019 to November 29, 2024 in Zagreb.
Thus, a 44-year-old and a 53-year-old man, after an official trip to Germany, created two false hotel bills and one false hotel bill after an official trip to Ireland. The 44-year-old and the 43-year-old also created two false hotel bills after an official trip to Serbia.
In addition, a 44-year-old, a 43-year-old and a 57-year-old made three false hotel bills after an official trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina, while a 44-year-old and a 37-year-old made two false hotel bills after an official trip to Romania.
The defendants, on the basis of false invoices prepared in such a way, submitted requests for travel expenses, which were approved and paid for them, and in the name of which they obtained a material benefit that did not belong to them.
Uskok previously reported that in relation to approximately four employees of MVEP, it issued a decision on the determination of precautionary measures prohibiting the performance of business activities.