Hercegovačka banka

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Hercegovačka banka
legal form Corporation
Seat Mostar , Bosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and HerzegovinaBosnia and Herzegovina 
Branch Financial service providers
Website www.hercegovacka-banka.com ( Memento from September 22, 2001 in the Internet Archive )

The Hercegovačka banka dd ( bos. For Herzegovinian Bank AG ) was a bank in Bosnia and Herzegovina , based in Mostar and in the legal form of a joint stock company . She gained international fame through her conflict with the United Nations in 2001.

Holdings and field of activity

It was founded in 1997 with the participation of Primus AD Mostar, a number of private companies and the Franciscan Province of Mostar and was mainly active in the Croatian-populated parts of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina with several branches . In 1997 the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) left as a shareholder; the current owners have merged to form Herzegovina Holding .

history

Early development

Since then, a large part of the payment transactions within Herzegovina and Posavina as well as international donations for the western Herzegovinian pilgrimage town of Međugorje (the Catholic parish of which the Franciscan province involved in the bank is responsible) has been handled by Hercegovačka banka.

The promotion company HERBA AG, founded in Zurich in 1999 , was officially dissolved on February 9, 2000 after irregularities regarding the residence of the managing directors arose.

However, the parent company remained listed and active on the stock exchange.

Conflict with the United Nations

Raids in April 2001

On April 6, 2001, the head office in Mostar and the branches in Široki Brijeg , Grude , Orašje , Tomislavgrad , Posušje , Vitez , Livno and Međugorje were hijacked on suspicion of embezzlement , fraud and money laundering for the party led by Ante Jelavić HDZ / BiH searched and closed. In the course of the search , around 50 sub-accounts of the Croatian Defense Council, which was officially dissolved after the end of the Bosnian War in 1995, were found.

The police of the Bosniak-Croatian Federation and the UN protection force encountered considerable resistance from the population; In Grude, several SFOR employees and civilians were the victims of a hostage-taking , 22 SFOR soldiers were slightly injured in the course of the nationwide raid . The safe of the headquarters in Mostar could only be opened with the help of explosives during a second search on April 19 . Considerable sums of money were nowhere to be found; the case has not yet been finally resolved.

Consequences and controversy

At the instigation of Wolfgang Petritsch , then High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina , the bank was placed under administration by Tony Robinson and business operations were suspended, as a result of which numerous investors lost access to their funds .

By Bosnian Croats has been sharp criticism of the actions of the United Nations and NATO and the " dictates of Dayton practiced". The United Nations, on the other hand, stated that its crackdown was justified on suspicion of financing arms purchases for Croatian separatists in Herzegovina.

On January 23, 2004, the Bosnian-Croatian politicians Miroslav Prce and Ante Jelavić as well as the businessman Miroslav Rupcić were arrested on suspicion of embezzling deposits from the bank.

present

The bank is still registered with the banking agency of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but has not resumed business operations and has not yet been sold. At the end of 2008, the Federation Banking Authority made another attempt to sell the bank. By the beginning of January 2009, the Sarajevo- based Fima banka and the Balkan investment banka from Banja Luka had submitted expressions of interest. As of July 2012, the bank is in liquidation .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c East European Constitutional Review. 2001, archived from the original on January 5, 2002 ; Retrieved December 9, 2016 .
  2. ^ A b c d Aida Cerkez-Robinson: Police Seize Control of Croatia Bank , Associated Press , April 6, 2001
  3. ↑ a b Anes Alic: Influential Bosnian Trio Arrested ( Memento of the original from August 24, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 26, 2004 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tol.cz
  4. ↑ Swiss Commercial Gazette of February 15, 2000
  5. ^ SFOR communications of April 18 and May 3, 2001
  6. ^ Roy Gutman, Juliette Terzieff: Bank Job In A Battle Zone , Newsweek , April 2001
  7. ^ Central Europe Review: SFOR raids Croat bank - take two , April 23, 2001
  8. ^ Bosnia Herzegovina 2001: The International Community and the Bosnian Croats , hercegbosna.org, undated
  9. ↑ Analysis: Bosnian Croats' Trial of Strength , BBC News , April 6, 2001
  10. ^ Fima i Balkan investment Bank u trci za Hercegovačku banku , January 13, 2009
  11. ↑ PDF