According to a statement SEC issued on its web site on 5 August "in an emergency federal court action filed today, the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained a Temporary Restraining Order against Sonja Anticevic, a Croatian national and resident. The Commission alleges that a securities account in Anticevic's name engaged in a series of highly suspicious, and highly profitable, trades in "out of the money" call options of Reebok International Ltd. just prior to Reebok's Aug. 3, 2005, announcement that it had agreed to be acquired by adidas-Salomon AG. The Commission's complaint alleges that on Aug. 1 and 2, 2005, the Anticevic account purchased a total of at least 1,997 "out of the money" call option contracts for the common stock of Reebok. Following the acquisition announcement on Aug. 3, 2005, the price of Reebok's common stock rose more than 30 percent from its closing price the prior day. The Anticevic account sold all of the call options after the price rise, realizing profits of over $2.04 million. Also on August 3, shortly after the sale of the options contracts, the brokerage firm received a wire instruction request to transfer approximately $870,000 of the proceeds from the Reebok trades to a bank account maintained in Salzburg, Austria."
After this, Mrs. Anticevic, a Croatian retired dress-maker from the coastal town of Omis, was suddenly thrust into the limelight. She declined to speak to the media which speculated whether she could be involved into unlawful trading with Reebok shares in the USA or if this was the case of stealing one's identity.
According to the Croatian press of Saturday, the court action was now extended to include two citizens from the Croatian capital of Zagreb, Zoran Sormaz and Ilija Borac, a carpenter and a driver respectively, Perica Lopandic, who lives in Germany as well as four persons from the USA, Monika Vujovic, Elvis Santana, Henry Siegel and Sonja Anticevic's nephew David Pajcin, a former broker in the USA. The ninth suspect is a person from Austria whose identity has not yet been known.
According to the Jutarnji List daily the first hearing of Anticevic was scheduled for 18 August in the USA but she failed to appear. The next hearing is set for 1 September. Anticevic's lawyer has been quoted by the Vecernji List daily as saying that they will accept a trial provided that it is held by a Croatian court.
The Vjesnik daily reports that the mastermind of the entire operation was Anticevic's nephew Pajcin.
David Markowitz of the SEC was quoted by the Vecernji List on Friday as saying that the Commission gathered evidence that all the nine suspects had communicated by phone. He added that he expected all the suspected to appear at the hearing, scheduled in two weeks' time in New York.
The two Croatians from Zagreb told the press that they were extremely surprised by the allegations since they had never traded in any shares.