Financial Police files criminal complaint over alleged laundering of railway-works advance

The Financial Police Directorate has filed a criminal complaint with the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office for Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption against five natural persons and two legal entities over an alleged scheme of money laundering and related offences tied to an advance payment for railway tracks.

The alleged scheme

According to the complaint, in 2022 the first accused, D. K., as owner of a Skopje-based company, negotiated and concluded a contract with a Slovenian firm for the sale of railway tracks valued at 21.6 million denars. The Slovenian company paid an advance of 283,310 euros (17.4 million denars), but the goods were not delivered and the money was not returned, causing damage in that amount.

Prosecutors say that part of the advance was then moved through a series of transactions intended to conceal its origin. D. K. and F. N., acting respectively as manager and as an authorized signatory on the Skopje company’s bank account, signed an order to transfer 16,762,410 denars to a legal entity in Shtip on the basis of a fictitious invoice for an alleged purchase of chicken legs.

Funds were subsequently shifted again via a fictitious cession agreement and ended up on the account of H. R. The complaint alleges that F. M., acting as the authorized accountant, did not register H. R. as the new creditor and further masked the transactions in the accounts by recording the amounts as negative postings on the buyer’s card. These transactions were not reflected in the company’s 2022 tax balance.

The Financial Police states that D. M., as an authorized signatory of the Shtip legal entity, transferred the money to H. R. shortly after receipt. From H. R.’s account, D. K., as an authorized person on that account, is accused of converting part of the funds into foreign currency; some of those funds were withdrawn in cash and some were used to purchase a vehicle.

In addition, the complaint alleges that F. N., as manager of the Skopje company, failed to pay personal income tax in the amount of 1,885,370 denars relating to payments made to H. R., and that H. R. did not declare the income in the 2022 annual personal income tax return. The Financial Police say the actions point to an attempt to hide the origin and location of proceeds from crime and to evade tax obligations.

Photo: press material from the event