Criminal complaint against five people and two firms over alleged money‑laundering in railway‑track sale

The Financial Police filed a criminal complaint with the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office for Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption against five individuals and two companies on suspicions of several offences: "Money laundering and other proceeds from criminal offence" (Article 273), "Fraud" (Article 247), "Falsification or destruction of business books" (Article 280) and "Tax evasion" (Article 279) under the Criminal Code of the Republic of North Macedonia.

Alleged scheme around sale of railway tracks

According to the complaint, D.K., as owner of a company registered in Skopje, negotiated and signed during 2022 a contract on behalf of the company with a legal entity from Slovenia for the purchase of railway tracks with a total value of 21,667,680 denars. The Slovenian buyer paid advance sums of 283,310 euros (17,423,564 denars) but the contracted goods were neither delivered nor were the advances returned, causing the buyer a loss equal to the paid amount.

To conceal the origin and location of the funds obtained by the criminal act, the complaint says D.K., together with F.N. — in his capacity as manager and authorised signatory of the Skopje company — issued an order transferring 16,762,410 denars from the company account to a company in Štip as payment of a fictitious invoice for an alleged purchase of chicken legs. The money was then passed on to H.R. via a fabricated cession agreement.

F.M., the authorised accountant, allegedly failed to register H.R. as the new creditor and performed accounting entries that masked the transactions by recording the amounts as negative postings on the purchaser's card. Those entries were not shown in the company's 2022 Tax Balance, the Financial Police say.

Immediately after the payment on the fictitious invoice, D.M., authorised signatory of the Štip company, reportedly executed an electronic transfer that moved the funds to H.R.'s account. D.K., as an authorised person on H.R.'s account, is accused of converting the proceeds into foreign currency, withdrawing part in cash and using part to purchase a vehicle.

Additionally, F.N., as manager of the Skopje company, allegedly failed in 2022 to remit personal income tax in the amount of 1,885,370 denars for payments made to H.R. under the cession agreement, and H.R. did not declare the income in the 2022 Annual Personal Income Tax return.

Photo: press material from the event