"The Fund had to issue a document on the privatisation, but it failed to do it for several years. Therefore the enterprise (Konstruktor) went into bankruptcy, which was one of the models for the privatisation. Now the Fund feels to have been injured. We did not cause damage to anyone. If damage has been caused, it has been caused by the Fund," Zderic was quoted by Radio Split as saying.
Last week, the Split County Prosecutor's Office charged five men with having prevented the completion of the process of privatisation of the Konstruktor company and with having established a new company to which they transferred Konstruktor's shares that should have been sold to its employees - small shareholders. As a result, they allegedly embezzled over HRK 2 million in the period from from April 1992 to the end of 1996, thus defrauding the Croatian Privatisation Fund. In the meantime it was established that one of the suspects had died.
The four suspects are Zderic, who was the enterprise's managing board chairman, Ivica Mladineo, Berislav Basic, and Josip Kuzmanic, who sat on the managing board at the time in question.