Belgrade Mayor Denies Owning Homes in Bulgaria

Sinisa Mali, the Mayor of Belgrade, has dismissed claims that he owns 24 apartments on the Bulgarian coast.

Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali has denied a media report that he owns a string of properties in Bulgaria.

In a statement, he said he owns only one apartment in Bulgaria, which he reported to the Anti-Corruption Agency when he became an adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister in January 2103.

KRIK, the network for investigating crime and corruption, on Monday said that Mali bought 24 apartments on the Bulgarian seaside in 2012 and 2013 as the legal representative of the two offshore companies based in the British Virgin Islands.

According to KRIK, he bought one apartment in his own name. The report also says that it is unclear what role Mali plays in the offshore companies, whether he bought the other apartments for himself or for someone else.

In his statement, Mali said he had consulted people on how to “buy real estate tax optimally or restructure their business” for 20 years before assuming public office.

He said KRIK’s story was thus related to the time when he worked as a consultant in a private company and had nothing to do with his time in office.

“The controversial report does not specify any data that has to do with my role as a mayor, but only gives information from my professional life at a time when I used to work privately,” Mali said.

Stevan Dojcinovic, editor at KRIK, told BIRN on Monday that his organisation has documents that prove Mali still works for the two offshore companies, and is still selling apartments in Bulgaria.

“We have evidence that Mali sold the last apartment in May. If he is not the owner of the companies it would be good to know who the Belgrade Mayor works for,” Dojcinovic told BIRN.

The total value of the 24 apartments was around 5 million euros, the network claimed.

Mali became Mayor of Belgrade in April 2014.

KRIK also said it was unclear how Mali obtained the money for the alleged real estate purchases since his total annual income, as reported to the Anti-Corruption Agency, was never above 34,000 euros.

Serbian officials are legally obliged to report their property and income to the Anti-Corruption Agency at the beginning and at the end of the mandates.

They are also bound to report every change. Otherwise the Agency can recommend their dismissal or to file the charges against them.

Nemanja Nenadic, from the watchdog Transparency Serbia, told BIRN that the Anti-Corruption Agency should investigate the allegations and ask Mali for additional explanations.

“If Mali gained properties in his own name without reporting it, the Agency should report it to the prosecutor’s office because it is a criminal offence to deliberately not report property,” Nenadic said.

According to him, it is illegal not to report the ownership of companies, regardless of whether they are registered in Serbia or abroad.

“Serbian officials are not legally obliged to report property that is formally owned by their companies, so if that was the case, Mali was not obliged to reported whether the apartments are owned by a company, not himself,” Nenadic clarified.