Witness in the Hypo Case: The Signature on the Payment Slips is Not Related to Eugen Laxa’s Signature

Vinko Šunde, a friend of the late Eugen Laxa, who was mentioned during the first trial of former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader in the Hypo affair as the person who received a commission for which Sanader is accused, testified at the retrial that the signature on the alleged payment slips has nothing to do with Laxa’s signature.

When asked whether Laxa, a Croatian emigrant in South America, was involved in obtaining the disputed loan from Hypo Bank that was approved for Croatia to purchase embassy buildings, Šunde said that Laxa only “got involved through him by asking for the return of property” seized in socialist Yugoslavia.

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– He offered his office in Sao Paulo to the Croatian consulate for free, hoping they would return his houses and land. When it was seized, it was taken overnight, but returning it takes decades, the witness said.

‘Sanader had a brother in Klagenfurt’

When asked if it was possible that Laxa received some commission, Šunde said that “only someone raised and educated by the party could think that.”

– But our dear Sanader also had a brother in Klagenfurt… So many institutions are wondering who could sign that in Klagenfurt, I wouldn’t even wonder… I don’t guarantee anything, but if someone has a brother in that place, why wouldn’t he call him, concluded the witness.

Sanader’s defense objected to his testimony, emphasizing that it was speculation.

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Laxa’s name was mentioned by several witnesses in the first trial, from the former CEO of Hypo Bank Wolfgang Kulterer, who said he could not remember what he looked like, but was sure he paid him the commission for which Sanader is accused, to former Foreign Minister Mate Granić, who described him as a respected emigrant.

Granić then testified that “the respected emigrant recommended to him by the then Croatian President Franjo Tuđman” was precisely Sanader, saying he could help in obtaining the loan with which Croatia was supposed to buy embassy buildings in 1995.

Granić is also a witness in the retrial

Granić is expected to take the witness stand in the retrial, with his testimony scheduled for April 26.

In the Hypo case, Sanader was previously convicted of war profiteering, as he received a commission from the Austrian Hypo Bank in the mid-90s while serving as Deputy Foreign Minister, which provided Croatia with a loan during the war years to purchase diplomatic representation buildings. However, the Constitutional Court annulled the final judgment in 2014 and requested a new trial at the Zagreb County Court.

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The annulled judgment against Sanader was also the first judgment for war profiteering made after the constitutional decision on the non-expiration of such criminal offenses, but the Constitutional Court annulled it with the conclusion that the County and Supreme Courts did not determine whether the statute of limitations had expired when Sanader was charged and that they violated the rule of applying the milder law. Sanader’s defense claimed at the beginning of the new trial that, among other things, they would prove that the commission was paid to a person who represented himself as Eugen Laxa, “most likely from the bank that, using that name, under the guise of a commission, took the money for itself.”