Saric said that he had received no more than EUR 60,000, while another two defendants - Davorin Kobak, former HZ Holding CEO, and Biserka Robic, director of Agit - had secured larger gains for themselves.
Saric, who was a sales executive in Agit, HZ's sister company, said he believed that he had been given that money to keep silent and that he had been forced to sign fake invoices brought to him by Robic.
Saric said he had not reported the murky dealings as he was afraid of losing his job and income.
However, he added that all that he had done had been for Agit's well-being and that the company had benefitted from that.
The false invoices were issued in order to pay commission to partners in neighbouring countries, notably Bosnia and Herzegovina, through which rail cargo was transported. That is why off-shore companies were established, Saric said, adding that the first off-shore company was established by Kobak and that he, too, founded another off-shore company later on.
"We took the money (from off-shore accounts) in Graz and Mostar. We would go to banks, pocket the money, arrive in Zagreb, put the money on the table and distribute it into envelopes, in accordance with the tonnes transported in a month," Saric told USKOK.
At the start of the trial, former HZ CEO Kobak dismissed all allegations in the indictment, saying that he had not organised any criminal group, issued false invoices or agreed prices with people from other rail companies in order to take kickbacks.
The second defendant, Biserka Robic, too, dismissed the charges. Her defence counsel Berislav Zivkovic said that in her deposition, Robic would prove that a majority of the invoices were not fake.
Kobak's lawyer Ivan Lovric announced an appeal against Saric's deposition.
The trial was adjourned until 1 February.