Trifun Kostovski urges VMRO-DPMNE not to use his name or Eurostandard Bank in partisan disputes

Businessman Trifun Kostovski has asked VMRO-DPMNE to stop using his name and the name of Eurostandard Bank as a tool in inter-party attacks, and urged authorities to focus on finding the real culprit behind the bank's collapse and bring them to court.

Kostovski posted the message as a video statement on social media, where he also praised the decision by the governor of the National Bank, Trajko Slaveski, to place Alta Bank under temporary administration, saying the problems at Alta could have a strong impact on citizens.

In the same statement he accused the ruling party of repeatedly spreading false allegations about Eurostandard Bank. He said: "I cannot understand the impulse or the reasons why the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE continuously spreads untruths related to Eurostandard Bank — that there was money laundering, that there were illegal transactions from Venezuela and companies that are close to the previous SDSM leadership led by Zoran Zaev are being mentioned."

He says he has a prosecutorial document that stopped the probe

Kostovski said he holds a document from the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office for Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption (OJO GOKK) dated June 5 this year, which halted the investigation into alleged money laundering and illegal operations at Eurostandard Bank. He argued that funds collected in the bankruptcy estate show the bank should not have gone into bankruptcy, and called on the authorities to use their powers to locate the real responsible party.

"Definitely I will not allow my bank and my name to be put on the carpet and used as a coin for settling accounts between political parties in our country. I advise, I make a proposal to the ruling VMRO-DPMNE that if it has genuine intentions to ask why SDSM did not take the same step during their time in power to save the bank which today with all the facts that speak from the funds collected in the bankruptcy estate, that this bank should not have gone into bankruptcy," Kostovski said in the video.

Kostovski also said he is available to institutions and parties to answer any question to help establish the truth about the bankruptcy of Eurostandard Bank.

Separately, VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski — who spoke at the parliamentary oversight hearing on Alta Bank on Wednesday, November 11 — drew a parallel with the Eurostandard case and accused the previous authorities of a "brutal" way of bankrupting a financial institution. Mickoski said: "That is a brutal way of bankrupting a financial institution after its liquidity was previously exhausted by issuing loans that affect the asset of the bank itself, but also the liquidity of the bank and companies that are connected to a political party that today is part of the opposition. But there is a court process that will answer all those questions and we will see which those companies are, who their owners are and how those companies drained the bank to the point that it overnight went bankrupt and people to this day cannot get their money."

Eurostandard Bank went into bankruptcy in 2020. On July 8 this year the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office for Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption announced that indictments were filed with the Basic Criminal Court — four former bank executives are accused: three are charged with the criminal offence of causing the bankruptcy of a bank, while one is the subject of a criminal proposal for negligent performance of duty.

Photo: Printskrin