High Criminal Court Dismisses Expert Testimony That Is Key Evidence Against Todorić

The High Criminal Court has decided that the accounting and financial expert testimony from KPMG Poland, which represents key evidence against former Agrokor owner Ivica Todorić and other suspects, has been removed from the case file, RTL has learned.

Todorić’s defense and the defense of the other suspects have pointed out from the beginning that the disputed expert testimony is an illegal piece of evidence due to the conflict of interest involved in the case.

Claiming that this was the only way to avoid the conflict of interest of Croatian experts, the then Chief State Attorney Dražen Jelenić announced an international tender in 2018 and contracted the expert testimony with the Polish branch of KPMG.

The defense previously argued that they have evidence that the expert testimony was conducted at KPMG Croatia, which they believe is in a conflict of interest.

– The key reason is that Kamal Ismail worked on the expert testimony to a lesser extent. The majority of it was done by employees of KPMG Croatia, who were simultaneously working for the temporary administration of Agrokor. An expert must be neutral – explained attorney Anto Nobilo earlier.

This most expensive expert testimony in Croatia was paid more than one million euros, and the indictment council of the Zagreb County Court declared it illegal evidence earlier this year.

– This is a magnificent victory – Todorić said back in March.

Recall that in the ‘big Agrokor’ case, Todorić and 14 other co-defendants are accused of causing damage to the conglomerate amounting to 1.2 billion kuna from 2006 to 2017. The prosecution claims that Todorić obtained more than 923 million kuna at the time, while the remainder went to the Dutch Agrokor Investment BV.

Additionally, just a few days ago, Todorić achieved another small victory when the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington (ICSID) declared itself competent for the dispute in which the former owner of Agrokor is suing the Republic of Croatia.