ZAGREB, July 1, 2019 - State Assets Minister Goran Marić on Monday denied media allegations according to which his son had moved into a newly built Zagreb apartment worth almost 2.5 million kuna under suspicious circumstances, saying that his son was a tenant and that there was no conflict of interest in the case.
Asked why he had transferred his family business to his friend Zvonko Šarić even though the business had 800,000 kuna in its account and an apartment valued at one million kuna, Marić said that the family business had not existed for more than ten years and that it had been owned by his wife and son.
"They transferred their business interests in accordance with the law, the business wasn't given away, the stakes were transferred and that was their right and their business relationship," Marić said, adding that they did it so that he could enter politics without any burden.
He added that he had never been in conflict of interest nor used his political role to gain any benefit or favour anyone.
The Index news portal on Monday released an article stating that the way in which the minister's son, Ante Marić, recently moved into a new apartment in Zagreb valued at almost 2.5 million kuna, opened a number of questions.
The portal claims that Ante Marić lives in an apartment owned by the Veslačka Nekretnine real estate company, the daughter company of Šted Invest where Goran Marić was the director in the period from 2005 to 2008, when he left to enter the parliament as a deputy of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
In a comment on alleged property-related irregularities concerning Minister Marić and Public Administration Minister Lovro Kuščević, the country's state chief inspector, Andrija Mikulić, said that those cases were not in the remit of the state inspectorate.
More news about the state assets minister can be found in the Politics section.
