None of the three prosecutors, who received a property report about Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin buying an expensive flat allegedly with the money borrowed from his wife’s aunt in Canada, have invited Vulin, or his wife, or the aunt to give statements – the crime and corruption research network, KRIK has found out.
The said property report was submitted to the First Instance Prosecutor’s Office, the Second Instance Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade, and the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime.
According to the document written by the First Instance Prosecutor’s Office, which KRIK saw, the conclusion was that Vulin did not deliberately give false information in an effort to conceal the truth about purchasing the property, but rather was erroneous for not “precisely defining the method of acquiring financial means with which he purchased the property”. The prosecutor believes that this omission is not a criminal offense.
As far as the the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime goes, they did not even question the origin of the money. The prosecutor also stated that the case was not in their jurisdiction because Vulin was an MP at the time of the purchase, adding that they only deal with those officials appointed by the Government or the National Parliament.
The Second Instance Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade also did not deal with the report, saying that it was outside their jurisdiction.
When it comes to the controversial flat, Vulin said, in the statement given to the Anti-Corruption Agency, that he got the money for the flat by selling his previous property. However, as it was ascertained later, Vulin got only 38,000 EUR for his previous flat which was not nearly enough to buy the new one.
He then changed his statement and claimed that that he had borrowed close to 205,000 EUR from his wife’s aunt in Canada. The agency found that this could not be true either since no money had been transferred to Vulin or his wife’s bank account, nor was there any trace that it had been brought into Serbia.
(Novi Magazin, 29.01.2018)