In a special series, Kurir reveals how exactly this controversial billionaire fulfilled his 'American dream' in the murky waters of the Balkan transition
According to official information, Direct Media was founded in April 2001 by Mlađan Đorđević, Egon Franičević, and Milan Krstić. In 2004, Dragan Đilas purchased it for USD 10,000 through a company of his called Multikom Group. In an interview with the KRIK portal, Đilas revealed that he had been the actual owner of the company from the get-go, but he did not wish to have the company officially registered in his name.
Empire built on fraud
"Back then, we were trying to come up with ways to survive the sanctions and Milošević. I was with the BBDO advertising agency, and the situation was such that you couldn't own a company involved in television rights at the same time. Mlađan Đorđević agreed to start the company himself," Đilas said, revealing that he was not at all averse to concealing ownership in his own companies for the purposes of sidestepping the conflict-of-interest regulations.
What he seems to have overlooked on the occasion is the fact that in 2001, when he founded the company with his best man, Serbia was no longer under the sanctions and Milošević was not in power anymore.
In the ten years that followed, during which period Đilas was in power for most of the time, he built a business empire. In April 2014, he announced that he had sold Direct Media for EUR 17.7 million. The business documentation, however, does not specify who the end buyer was. The company was purchased by the Dutch foundation CEE Media, which had been founded only one month before. The director of the foundation was the controversial Bulgarian businessman Krassimir Guergov, who was obviously no more than a front for this purchase.
Šolak's fingerprints at Direct Media
Although Guergov was the formal buyer of Direct Media, the company was essentially already in Šolak's hands, i.e. in the hands of his main operative – Dragana Kostić (Dragana Jovanović Džaril). Her ties with Šolak are evident at the Diplomatic Golf Club, where she served as a legal representative – as did Gordana Šolak, the businessman's wife. Furthermore, Dragana Kostić is also on the Board of Directors of Golf Club Belgrade, at which Dragan Šolak is the legal representative and his wife is the secretary.
Dragana Kostić played a crucial role in the purchase of Direct Media. As a member of Sierra Investment Group, based on the British Virgin Islands, she loaned app. EUR 9.5 million to Stichting Administratiekantoor CEE Media – a company at which Guergov was the CEO – for purchasing a stake in Multikom Group. Interestingly, this sum of money was transferred into Multikom's bank account on the same day.
One Wolfram Andreas Kuoni, a lawyer from Switzerland, did the same thing – he paid app. EUR 8.2 million to Stichting Administratiekantoor CEE Media for purchasing a stake in Multikom via Kuoni Rechtsanwälte – one of his 13 companies registered in Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. The fact that he is also on the BoD of United Media Network AG from Switzerland demonstrates conclusively that, like Dragana Kostić, he is Šolak's minion.
In July 2015, this foundation transferred its ownership stake in Direct Media free of charge to Ascanius Netherlands, a company based on the Virgin Islands. The company ownership stake was hidden behind eight companies registered in multiple offshore zone locations – The Netherlands, Luxembourg, The British Virgin Islands, Samoa, and Hong Kong. The last in the series of the companies that could be identified was Hoche Partners Private Equity Investors Sarl from Luxemburg, which was re-registered to the British Virgin Islands in early 2014.
Lawyer Wolfram Andreas Kuoni was a key player in another secret financial transaction that took place between Šolak and Đilas. It was the purchase of the building owned by Đilas's Multikom Group. Šolak bought the building, located in Antifašističke Borbe Street, on 31 October 2017 – before he officially purchased Direct Media. He bought it for app. EUR 4.5 million, and it was purchased through Deutsche Bank. The formal buyer was Techhill Plaza, a company with ties to DanSav Investments from Switzerland, which has the lawyer Kuoni in its management. Techhill Plaza d.o.o. was founded in 2012 and registered at the same address as SBB (19 Bulevar Peka Dapčevića in Belgrade).
Who was Direct Media's actual owner all along?
Although Đilas kept claiming that he was not aware of this information, his long-term associates – Jovan Stojanović, Jadranka Dinić, and Silvana Pandurević – stayed on as minority co-owners at Direct Media. A few days after it was handed over to the Dutch company, whose ultimate owner remained hidden behind several offshore firms, the company became a co-owner of a 10-percent stake in Željko Mitrović's company Pink International as a result of outstanding debts.
In addition to the fact that Đilas's close associates remained as co-owners of a company that had allegedly been sold, its registered seat and offices remained in the building located at 13b Antifašističke Borbe Street, also owned by his company, Multikom.
And then, in June 2018, the news broke that Šolak's United Media had submitted to the Commission for the Protection of Competition a request to approve the purchase of a 100-percent stake in Direct Media in the Serbian, Montenegrin, Macedonian, and Albanian markets, including the request to approve the purchase of the television channels Pink BiH and Pink Crna Gora. When the Commission gave it the greenlight, the transaction was completed, and Željko Mitrović – the owner and CEO of Pink Media Group – became once again the sole owner of TV Pink. According to the company's official statement, Mitrović bought the abovementioned 10-percent stake owned by Direct Media.
The Mauritius scandal: Did Đilas evade paying taxes?
The scandal that cast a different light on this transaction and raised serious suspicions that Dragan Đilas had sold Direct Media to Šolak at a significantly lower price was the discovery of the Mauritius-based company Ascanius' bank accounts, with the leader of the Freedom and Justice Party listed as the authorized person.
Although Đilas denied this, claiming that it was a forged document, the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering submitted a request for information to the Mauritius authorities, and the authenticity of the released documents is currently being checked.
According to these documents, in addition to selling Direct Media to the Bulgarian businessman Krassimir Guergov – who acted as its owner – for EUR 17.7 million, another 52 million euros which Đilas failed to report to the Serbian tax authorities were subsequently paid into the Ascanius bank account.
United Group's 2018 and 2020 annual reports confirm that the acquisition of Direct Media was worth EUR 69.7 million, as this amount is listed there as the price of the purchase in question.
Đilas pressed charges against a number of Serbian media outlets for publishing the information related to the disputed Mauritius bank account and suspicions that it had been used to hide the money made by selling Direct Media from the Serbian tax authorities. However, the owner of Multikom and leader of the Freedom and Justice Party seems to have overlooked the fact that the relevant Serbian authorities initiated the investigation of this case, and that it is legal and legitimate for the Serbian media to report on it.
In addition to co-owning a Maltese company and the sales of the Multikom building and Direct Media, Šolak and Đilas also have common ties with the EBRD. The EBRD has an ownership stake in United Group and is an important link in building the trust of the large investment funds which support the business operations and expansion of Šolak's company.
COMING UP NEXT: Šolak's business under EBRD protection