The Šolak–Đilas duo, a partnership fiercely hidden in a dense offshore network: A political-business machine for destroying competition and amassing millions
For the founder of United Group, Dragan Šolak, it was also necessary to have a solid political wing to secure public and covert business deals, maintain his monopoly on the telecommunications market and extract enormous profits on that basis. In a series of articles, Kurir has presented numerous examples that unequivocally show that the central figure in that part of the mechanism for destroying competition was Dragan Đilas, above all as a businessman with an insatiable appetite for money, almost identical to the one Šolak has displayed over the past three and a half decades.
Even in his role as an ambitious politician, currently the leader of the opposition Freedom and Justice Party, Đilas was an important link in the final stage of Šolak’s business operations, when he used both lawful and unlawful means to squeeze Telekom Srbija out of the market contest and leave himself in a monopolistic position.
They hid their business ties
Although both of them consistently denied having business ties between them, irrefutable evidence has emerged in public, as Kurir has reported, that in at least three cases Šolak and Đilas had joint business ventures, and there are indications that they are actively cooperating on a certain number of other projects. When, in October 2018, information emerged that Šolak and Đilas had a joint company in Malta, both of them clumsily attempted to deny it, but over time other data about the connection between this pair surfaced as well. In addition to the poorly concealed, but ultimately confirmed fact that Šolak and Jadranka Drinić, a long-time associate of Đilas, have a joint company in Malta that stood behind the acquisition of the Pink M and Pink BiH television stations, a story also emerged that Šolak had bought the former Đilas-owned company Direct Media.
Besides that, it was revealed that before buying Đilas’s business, Šolak had also purchased, for just over four million euros, a building owned by the SSP leader. The Swiss lawyer Volfram Kuoni, also known as the Kremlin’s banker, was a crucial figure in this behind-the-scenes undertaking. We have written repeatedly about Kuoni as Šolak’s main link for tapping into the finances of Moscow and Russian oligarchs, while the declared business was developed thanks to the image of a pro-Western businessman.
So, before he bought Đilas’s company, Šolak bought from the firm Multikom a building in Antifašističke Borbe Street in the municipality of Novi Beograd. Shedding light on this case was very demanding, because all transactions between Đilas and Šolak were concealed within an incredibly dense offshore network and an unmanageable number of intermediaries. However, the fact is that on 31 October 2017 Multikom sold the mentioned building, with a total surface area of 1,528 square metres, to the company Techhill Plaza DOO, founded in 2012 and registered at the same address as the most profitable part of United Group – SBB (19 Bulevar Peka Dapčevića).
At the same time, the address for receipt of mail was listed as 8A Bulevar Zorana Đinđića, at which Šolak’s company United Media is registered. The building was officially sold for 4.5 million euros, and real-estate experts pointed out that the purchase price was above market value. In the media, this transaction was linked to the financing of Đilas’s campaign for the Belgrade elections held in March 2018.
In a series of articles, we have shown why the sale of Đilas’s Direct Media and the Multikom building to United Group is the point at which the nature of the political-business alliance between Dragan Đilas and Dragan Šolak, worth tens and possibly hundreds of millions of euros, becomes visible. That cooperation was a strictly guarded secret because a complicated scheme of malfeasance lies behind it. When the deliberately convoluted mechanism of buying and selling is dismantled and cleansed of false and inserted elements, a clear picture emerges that Šolak bought Direct Media from Đilas’s Multikom Group back in 2014, which was concealed even from the then co-owners of United Group in order to siphon money out of the joint company.
The Dutch launched an investigation
This transaction is therefore an illustrative example of Šolak’s unfair business practices. Soecifically, Direct Media was purchased through a complicated chain of offshore entities. Based on documents, Kurir uncovered that the changes in ownership of Direct Media in the period 2014–2015 were channelled through at least eight companies registered in offshore zones, including the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Samoa, Hong Kong, The British Virgin Islands and Nevis.
The Bulgarian businessman Krasimir Gergov was merely a front, put forward as the buyer through a Dutch foundation, but subsequent evidence indicated that he was acting as an intermediary.
Kurir relayed the reporting of Italy’s La Verità, which stated that a group of Serbian tycoons led by Volfram Kuoni orchestrated the change of ownership of Direct Media through these offshore structures. In fact, the funds for the acquisition appeared to have been secretly routed through Šolak’s network: the money was allegedly sent from The British Virgin Islands, from an offshore company under Šolak’s control, to Gergov to execute the purchase, and additional funds were transferred from Switzerland by Kuoni, who acted as Šolak’s fiduciary. Such an arrangement concealed the true origin of the 17.7 million euros paid for Direct Media.
The Dutch authorities, suspecting international money laundering, launched an investigation into the transaction. However, the complex scheme successfully concealed the funds and the ultimate beneficiaries, illustrating how offshore channels were used to inject capital of dubious origin into Šolak’s media ventures. Kuoni engaged in similar scheming when United Group bought a commercial building from Đilas, which Kurir also wrote about in detail.
In addition to the obvious business ties between Šolak and Đilas, their connection is also reflected in the political appearances of the former Mayor of Belgrade, which always align with the protection of Šolak’s business interests. Đilas and his political satellites played a prominent role in the campaign against Telekom Srbija, while N1 and Nova, through their cheerleading reporting, regularly support the views and actions of Đilas’s political grouping.
Kurir Editorial Team