Illegal financing of a political party (Talir case)
More resultsIntroduction
On 22 May 2017, the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) launched an investigation against 11 suspects and a legal entity, the VMRO-DPMNE political party, for the illegal financing of the party. The first suspect, former party leader and prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled to Hungary in 2018 and was granted asylum by the Hungarian authorities, was investigated for money laundering and abuse of office. In his capacity as president of the VMRO-DPMNE party, Gruevski accepted €4.9 million in illegal donations for his party between 2009 and 2015, while he was prime minister, indicating signs of state capture.
- Country
- North Macedonia
- Sector
- Public finance
- Offence
- Abuse of official position or authority
- Phase
- 1st instance procedure
Description of the case
On 22 May 2017, the Special Prosecution Office (SPO) launched an investigation against 11 suspects and a legal entity, the VMRO-DPMNE political party, for the illegal financing of the party. The first suspect, former party leader and prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled to Hungary in 2018 and was granted asylum by the Hungarian authorities, was investigated for money laundering and abuse of office. In his capacity as president of the VMRO-DPMNE party, Gruevski accepted €4.9 million in illegal donations for his party between 2009 and 2015, while he was prime minister, indicating signs of state capture.
According to the SPO, there was reasonable suspicion that the money originated from a crime committed by a group of people who enabled money laundering through the party’s local organisations by depositing cash in the party account in the form of personal payments. The allegations also point to negligence on the part of banks.
On 22 November 2018, the investigation yielded enough evidence for the public prosecutor to bring an indictment against the defendants Nikola Gruevski, Kiril Bozinovski, Mile Janakievski, Ilija Dimovski, Leko Ristovski, Elizabeta Chingarovska and the VMRO-DPMNE political party.
The SPO investigation revealed that Gruevski, instead of returning the money to the national budget, used it to finance the VMRO-DPMNE party illegally. The SPO also said that the money was transferred to 11 people and used to buy real estate assets and pay for various party expenditures. Of the 11 people, nine were direct perpetrators and two were accomplices.
The SPO also filed 12 requests to the courts to freeze the real estate assets (houses, apartments, office space), which the SPO estimated to be worth €17.5 million.
The first hearing in the Talir case was held on 18 February 2019. However, there were as many as nine delays at the defence’s request because one of the defendants, Nikola Gruevski, was permanently absent.
In addition to the absence of defendants, the trial’s start was also delayed for several months because of a change in VMRO-DPMNE's lawyers and a request for authentic interpretation of a paragraph in the SPO law.
On 2 March 2020, more than a year after the first scheduled hearing in the Talir case, the parties gave their opening statements. The case lies at the heart of discussions about the new Law on Public Prosecutions.
Corruption offence
Abuse of official position and authorisation (Article 353 of the CC)
Money laundering and other proceeds of crime (Article 273, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of North Macedonia)
Other (non/criminal) laws breached (what
Law on the Financing of Political Parties
Law on the Prevention of Corruption
These laws have been breached insofar as they define the official duty and manner of work of the prime minister and other ministers.
Suspects' institutional affiliation
The main suspect, Nikola Gruevski, is a former prime minister and president of the VMRO-DPMNE political party.
Date of offending
From 2009 until the end of 2015
Sector affected by the offence
Public finance
Related developments
The suspects lost political power. The first defendant Nikola Gruevski is no longer president of the VMRO-DPMNE party. The party lost the parliamentary elections in 2016 prior to the SPO’s investigations.
The Talir case is one of the cases arising from the Skopje 2014 project.
The Beton construction company is the same company that built the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle for Statehood and Independence (Museum of VMRO-DPMNE) cited in the Tenderi case. As part of Skopje 2014, Beton worked on seven buildings for a total amount of €55 million: Finki, Mepso, the Constitutional Court, the Faculty of Physical Culture, the VMRO Museum (see the Tenderi case), the Old Theatre and the floorplan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (For more on Beton and Skopje 2014, see here, here, here and here.)
Court
The Court of First Instance Skopje 1 Skopje; Skopje Court of Appeal
Related domestic or foreign cases
The court separated the trial of one of the defendants, Elizabeta Chingarovska, because she pleaded guilty. On 21 December 2018, the court sentenced her to two years’ probation, which will not be executed if she does not commit a new crime in the subsequent five years.
Former prime minister Nikola Gruevski and former government secretary Kiril Bozinovski also stand charged in the Talir 2 case, where, according to the SPO’s indictment, they abused their official position in order to enable the Beton construction company to build the headquarters of the VMRO-DPMNE political party.
The defendants, acting contrary to legal provisions, obtained a significant property benefit for the VMRO-DPMNE political party in the amount of MKD 507,164,424 (€8,246,576).
Between 2011 and 2012, 75 per cent of Beton’s revenues came from state institutions, local government units or public companies run by VMRO-DPMNE party officials. Beton built the VMRO-DPMNE’s headquarters, which had an investment value of almost €7 million, and paid the party an amount of €2,155,668. VMRO-DPMNE's investments amounted to only €815,323. In this way VMRO-DPMNE received €8,246,576.
Current stage of the case in criminal procedure
1st instance verdict for one of the defendants
Procedural history
On 22 May 2017, the Special Prosecution Office launched an investigation against 11 suspects and a legal entity, the VMRO-DPMNE political party, for illegal financing of the party.
On 22 November 2018, the investigation yielded enough evidence for the public prosecutor to bring an indictment against the defendants Nikola Gruevski, Kiril Bozinovski, Mile Janakievski, Ilija Dimovski, Leko Ristovski, Elizabeta Chingarovska and the VMRO-DPMNE political party.
The Indictment Evaluation Council at the Basic Court Skopje 1 Skopje, acting on the objections of the defendants and their lawyers against the indictment, scheduled the hearing for an assessment for 13 December 2018. The hearing was postponed until 24 December 2018 because of the unsuccessful delivery of an invitation to several defendants and defendant Elizabeta Chingarovska’s admission of guilt.
On 21 December 2018, Chingarovska was found guilty of money laundering and given a probationary sentence of two years.
After the indictment was fully approved, the Basic Court Skopje 1 Skopje scheduled a hearing for 18 February 2019, which was postponed owing to the absence of one of the defendants. In the next period there were as many as nine delays at the defence’s request because one of the defendants, Nikola Gruevski, was permanently absent.
On 15 October 2019, the trial in the Talir case once again failed to start, because the defendant Nikola Gruevski had revoked his lawyer’s power of attorney.
On 2 March 2020, more than a year after the first scheduled hearing for the trial in the Talir case, the parties gave their opening statements. After several postponements in early 2021, the trail run into another obstacle when the Judicial Council dismissed one judge from a judging panel.
Obstacles
One obstacle was the absence of the first defendant Nikola Gruevski, who fled to Hungary where he obtained political asylum.
On 15 October 2019, the trial in the Talir case ran into another obstacle when the defendant Nikola Gruevski revoked his lawyer’s power of attorney.
On 15 September 2019, a third obstacle arose when Parliament unanimously dismissed Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva from the Special Prosecution Office. On 16 September 2019, the Council of Public Prosecutors announced the dismantling of the Special Prosecution Office.
Janeva, who was in detention at time, signed a letter handing over the cases to State Public Prosecutor Ljubomir Joveski. As a consequence, all of the investigations led by the Special Prosecution Office were reassigned to the State Public Prosecutor’s Office.
On 5 July 2021, when the Judicial Council dismissed judge Goran Bosevski from a judging panel leading to another postponement of the trail until a new judge is appointed.
Resolution of the case
The trail for main defendants is ongoing.
In its verdict for the defendant Elizabeta Chingarovska, the court announced a suspended sentence of two years, which will not be executed if Chingarovska does not commit a new criminal act within five years from the effective date of the verdict.
Applicable minimum and maximum penalty in the highest band for the actual offence in the case
For abuse of official position and authorisation (Article 353, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Code) sentence is prison from six months to three years.
For money laundering and other proceeds of crime (Article 273, Paragraph 5) minimum sentence is prison for at least five years.
Charges pressed by the prosecutor in the actual case
On 22 November 2018, the SPO submitted an indictment charging the defendants Nikola Gruevski, Kiril Bozinovski, Mile Janakieski, Ilija Dimovski, Leko Ristovski, Elizabeta Chingarovska and a legal entity, the VMRO-DPMNE political party, with the criminal offences of money laundering and other proceeds of crime (Article 273 of the Criminal Code) and abuse of official position and authorisation (Article 353 of the Criminal Code).
Sanctions imposed
On 21 December 2018, Chingarovska pleaded guilty to money laundering and received a probationary sentence of two years, which will not be executed if Chingarovska does not commit a new criminal act within five years from the effective date of the verdict. The trail for other defendants is ongoing.
Sanctions enforced
Probationary sentence of two years for Chingarovska
Every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of the information contained in this database. All information is believed to be correct as of December 2020. Nevertheless, Transparency International cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of its use for other purposes or in other contexts.
