April the 5th, 2023 - Could former Agrokor boss Ivica Todoric now have the upper hand in an arbitration dispute across the pond in Washington? The man who was once plastered across the glossy pages of Forbes as Croatia's richest has announced that he's going to step back into politics.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, Goran Jandrokovic, the Croatian Parliament speaker, asked if a journalist was ''seriously asking him that'' when asked for his comments on Ivica Todoric's latest plans to become politically active in time for the next elections.

Despite his uncertainty about the legitimacy of the question put to him, Jandrokovic simply stated: "we live in a democracy, anyone who has political ambitions can run for office". Even parliament member Katarina Peovic, who is known for her controversial statements and stances, doesn't consider Ivica Todoric's political plans to be a topic of interest for her, as she considers him to be the "Monty Python of the political scene". The former owner of Agrokor, however, has been plotting and is going to announce a political party of his own.

The formation of a new political party wasn't the sole reason for the former gazda (boss) calling a press conference. As the main topic, he highlighted the way in which the Extraordinary Administration of Agrokor ''created the insolvency of the entire Agrokor Group and the financial and business situation of today's Agrokor (Fortenova) in relation to Agrokor d.d.''. Yes, he's still talking about it.

In short, Ivica Todoric believes that he was the victim of a conspiracy and a plan to take over Agrokor's assets, which won't come as any sort of new information to anyone who has followed the Agrokor fallout from back in 2017. He alleges that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the Borg group are at the helm of said conspiracy, and, according to him, foreign services, Russian and American, also played a significant role in everything. Although for years before 2017 and the introduction of extraordinary management, Agrokor followed the epithet of a highly indebted company, he still claims that Agrokor was not in financial trouble, and he reiterated that the plan was to go to the London Stock Exchange.

"In order to achieve the goal of a hostile takeover of Agrokor and expropriation, the bankruptcy of the entire Agrokor Group, i.e. the key 40 companies, had to be ensured. Since no company within the Group was insolvent, it was impossible to implement bankruptcy proceedings. Therefore, a monstrous plan was constructed by which co-debtor guarantees of members of the Agrokor Group were booked into the expenses and liabilities of each of the companies, and that was done in full, in order to create a fictitious insolvency,'' these are some of the highlights of Todoric's claimed truth.

In this regard, he says that the co-debt guarantees issued by 16 members of the Group for Agrokor d.d. amounted to 14 billion kuna, which was "turned" into 224 billion kuna by the aforementioned accounting multiplication. He explained more, and stated that eventually, all of this debt was in his words ''artificially multiplied'' to the enormous sum of 320 billion kuna.

The problem, however, is that even without this accounting multiplication, the guarantee would have sunk the operating companies entirely. Another question is whether the guarantees were approved in a legal way even before the Extraordinary Administration took over. In fact, Ivica Todoric is saying today that the debt of the former Agrokor was actually a so-called "junk debt" that was being written off. In other words, it follows that the guarantees shouldn't actually have been accepted, but according to Todoric, the extraordinary administration didn't refuse any of that because it was the only way to declare insolvency for Agrokor. The former owner of the massive domestic concern also believes that Agrokor's debt stood at 35 billion kuna out of 50 billion kuna in turnover, adding that "today they have 30 billion kuna in turnover and 33.5 billion kuna in debt" and that "the company (being Fortenova) is withering".

Admittedly, in his interpretation, it turns out that the aforementioned debt of Fortenova was practically newly created, although that is not exactly the case.

Even from the time the settlement was agreed due to the controversies that followed the entire process, it was clear that this insolvency procedure would have quite a few legal tails to it. And the fact that Ivica Todoric, who used to be much more inclined to one-way communication, has lately been making public appearances is more related to legal processes than anything else.

First of all, he was certainly encouraged by the DORH debacle in connection with the expert report in the case of the so-called of the ''great (veliki) Agrokor'', i.e. by the decision of the Indictment Panel of the County Court in Zagreb, which deemed Ismet Kamal's financial expertise, on which the indictment for withdrawing 1.2 billion kuna was based, illegal evidence.

Will this prove to be an important trump card in the arbitration dispute that Todoric and his Dutch company initiated in Washington some two years ago? Perhaps. He seems to be counting on that, and claims that, in addition to the USA, he has the right to litigate in several European countries.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated news section.

March the 31st, 2023 - This week in Croatian politics, we've had discussions around the hypothetical arrest of Vladimir Putin, donations of helicopters and a huge sum of cash to Ukraine, gas price worries and Ivica Todoric is back where he loves to be the most - in the spotlight.

Former Agrokor boss Ivica Todoric is thrilled that Index readers stated they'd sooner vote for him as prime minister than current PM Andrej Plenkovic

If you're a follower of politics (and scandals) in Croatia, you'll more than likely recall one of the most enormous events in independent Croatian history - the Agrokor saga. I wrote a lot about it back at the time, and you can get a feel of it here, in an article entitled Requiem for a Company. Ivica Todoric, the former boss of this huge company, fell into troubled waters and there was a huge amount of drama surrounding the entire story. It eventually ended with him being extradited back to Croatia from London after handing himself in at Charring Cross police station following his stay in the United Kingdom in an attempt to avoid Croatian courts. 

Todoric is currently a free man, and despite all of the dramatics of that situation from back in 2017, he is still more popular than Andrej Plenkovic in the opinion of some Index readers. Index recently carried out a poll asking their readers who they'd sooner vote for as prime minister, the current one (Plenkovic), or the somewhat Godfather-like character, Ivica Todoric. They chose the latter, and he's thrilled about it.

Todoric is known for his humour (no, really), and the inspiration for that poll was provided by Todoric himself, who published a similar one on his own Facebook profile and, examining the pulse of the people, asked whether the citizens of Croatia wanted him or Andrej Plenkovic as prime minister. In his Facebook poll, Todoric received 92% of the votes in his favour, and Index readers who share a similar sense of humour also gave Todoric a shining 72% advantage in its own poll.

Would Croatia arrest Vladimir Putin if he entered the country? Plenkovic says yes

Plenkovic recently made a statement during his stay in the Belgian capital of Brussels after a two-day spring meeting at the summit of European leaders. The main topics of the summit were further support for Ukraine, especially in sufficient quantities of ammunition, the competitiveness of the European economy, especially in relation to the United States and China, and the internal market and issues of energy and migration.

"Once again, we showed our commitment and solidarity to Ukraine in all aspects. We also discussed the topics of economic management, competitiveness and the energy situation, where everything that has been happening for the past three years in the context of the coronavirus crisis, the energy crisis, the food crisis and inflationary pressures essentially requires greater coordination of the economic policies of EU member states," Plenkovic said.

In response to the question of whether or not the Croatian authorities would arrest Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin if he arrived here in Croatia, Plenkovic said an emphatic and blunt - yes.

''The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, so if he were to visit Croatia, he would be arrested in accordance with the procedure stipulated by that law,'' Plenkovic said.

Croatia otherwise acceded to the statute of the International Criminal Court and a law was passed on cooperation with that court. "That law provides for all the procedures in case there is a warrant issued for the arrest of a person, and as far as I know, immunity does not apply here. Accordingly, the procedure would go exactly as provided for by that law, and of course the Croatian police and competent authorities would react to Putin arriving in Croatia," said Plenkovic in response to a journalist's question.

President Zoran Milanovic makes a strange statement about the Russia-Ukraine war once again, this time about donated Croatian helicopters

Croatia, much like the rest of the EU and indeed most of the world, has stood firmly by Ukraine's side ever since the beginning of the shock Russian invasion back in February 2022. Having been through a horrific war just one generation ago and with those painful memories still very fresh, Croatia is able to understand the Ukrainian struggle against Russian aggression like few other countries are, given that the now shared experience both countries have is so recent. Milanovic, however, has continuously been vocal about his rather odd stances for over a year now. He has invited endless criticism and even questions from other politicians from across Europe about just what Croatia's official stance is.

Of course, Milanovic's strange statements and stances are not remotely in line with the official Croatian position - firmly by Ukraine's side and staunchly against Russia's actions. Plenkovic, with whom Milanovic is constantly butting heads, has spoken about this numerous times, attempting to distance not only himself personally but Croatian politics as a whole from the president's baffling and politically damaging remarks. 

The latest such remark from Milanovic regards helicopters Croatia donated to Ukraine, and which should be delivered there very soon. Milanovic was quick to tell journalists that these helicopters "needed getting rid of anyway'' because Croatia no longer has the conditions for their maintenance.

To keep you in the loop, Croatia is donating fourteen transport helicopters to Ukraine, of which twelve are MI 8 MTV-1 models and two are MI 8 T models. Defense Minister Mario Banozic said on Wednesday in the Ukrainian city of Odessa that he expects these helicopters to arrive in Ukraine soon.

Milanovic dressed his comments up in a fashion which makes it seem as if Croatia is simply doling out its useless cast-offs to the Ukrainian people, which has angered multiple people in Croatian politics and beyond. "Those helicopters aren't something promising anyway, we wouldn't have the conditions or the ability to maintain them anymore, because we have a lot of those helicopters and we need to get rid of them,'' he claimed.

Croatia also recently agreed to provide another 500,000 euros to Ukraine.

As the Croatian Government alters its decision on price controls, milk prices shoot up

On Thursday, the Croatian government changed the decision on direct price control measures for specific food products in such a way that the highest retail price of UHT milk with 2.8 percent milk fat per liter has now been raised by 5 cents and the price it cannot exceed amounts to 1.03 euros.

You can read more detail about that by clicking here.

Economy Minister Davor Filipovic has claimed that energy (gas) prices won't go up as of tomorrow, when the current measures are due to expire

A cabinet meeting was held recently in the National and University Library, as Index reports. On the agenda of the session was the decision to approve the granting of a shareholder loan to Hrvatska elektroprivreda (HEP) and the initiation of the recapitalisation procedure. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced that HEP will be given a shareholder loan, first of 400 million euros, and then another 500 million euros. Minister Davor Filipovic also made a statement after the session, where he discussed the topic on everyone's minds - price increases following the expiration of government measures on the 1st of April, 2023.

"The price of gas will not change from April the 1st. Everything will be fine, as it has been until now. People don't have to worry about it. We're protecting the people and the economy, and there will be no problems in that regard, people don't need to worry about any of that," he added.

"The government has now made several important decisions. One of them is the granting of a shareholder loan to HEP and recapitalisation. This is being done so that HEP will continue to bear the burden of this crisis and so that people can continue to have a favourable price for electricity. We've agreed that HEP will extend the repayment of the loan in order to be able to continuously purchase the energy products that are necessary for the functioning of the domestic economy," said Filipovic.

"We're moving in the direction of recapitalisation, and as for HEP's financial results, you should ask the HEP Management. We haven't yet received any financial results from them, the obligation for us to be given those results is just after March, so everything is still within the legal deadline. HEP's management is responsible for that and it's up to them," he added.

For more on Croatian politics, make sure to keep up with our dedicated section. You can also follow our Week in Croatian Politics articles which provide an overview and are published every Friday.

July the 8th, 2022 - Finance Minister Zdravko Maric, who was with the government in that position for six years, seemingly suddenly stepped down of his own accord recently, and former Agrokor boss Ivica Todoric, with whom the now former finance minister was embroiled back in 2017, has made a comment.

If you'd like to learn more about Zdravko Maric's history and the reasons behind him stepping down from his longtime position within Andrej Plenkovic's government (HDZ), you can do so here.

The article also details Zdravko Maric's close involvement with the Agrokor saga which threatened to bring the Croatian economy to its knees back in 2017 when certain goings on among its leading names and former boss Ivica Todoric came to light. Maric came to work within the government from Agrokor, and naturally, Ivica Todoric had a lot to say about the otherwise rather unassuming former minister back then, and now.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, ex Agrokor founder and boss Ivica Todoric says that he has analysed everything to do with the current political situation and that he is very much inclined to believe that the reason for Zdravko Maric stepping down from his position within the government is the loss of the Republic of Croatia's dispute against Hungary's MOL, an issue which has otherwise been plaguing the government for a significant amount of time now.

"The dispute was initiated by MOL. Croatia will now have to pay an amount between 250-300 million euros, plus interest. A thorough analysis of this case would reveal many facts that would lead one to accuse Andrej Plenkovic of simply handing Croatia's INA over to MOL, and this should of course be avoided at all costs.

In the same sense, it would open up the story of the arbitration related to Agrokor once again, which would only further complicate Plenkovic's position even more. In order to avoid dramatic evidence against himself coming to light (he's trying to sweep everything under the rug), Andrej Plenkovic planned and prepared the strongest possible media bomb to save his own skin. So Maric is now leaving to try to save Plenkovic," Ivica Todoric wrote on Facebook.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated politics section.

October the 20th, 2021 - The Croatian State Attorney's Office's indictment against former Agrokor boss Ivica Todoric, as well as fourteen of his former accomplices, remains unconfirmed to this day.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the indictment of the State Attorney's Office in the Agrokor case against the former owner Ivica Todoric and fourteen other defendants charged with varying forms of abuse of the former company worth hundreds of millions of kuna has not been confirmed yet, and now it has become questionable whether the key evidence is even legal, as reported by Jutarnji list.

The High Criminal Court Chamber, chaired by Judge Ivan Turudic, partially upheld the defense's appeals over key evidence in the Agrokor case - a bookkeeping (financial) finding prepared by KPMG's Polish subsidiary. The defense argues that this evidence is actually illegal.

As to the legality of the expertise, the High Criminal Court considers that it cannot examine the decisive facts at all or determine whether there are reasons to single out this evidence as illegal in itself. According to the court, it is disputable that it isn't clear who (and indeed to what extent) participated in the preparation of the expert report in question, and therefore it wasn't possible to verify whether the persons who participated in the preparation of the findings and opinions were in conflict of interest. If that is the case, it could well be a legal reason for exemption.

Namely, although the accounting and financial expertise has been signed by Ismet Kamal, an employee of the Polish branch of KPMG, the defense pointed out that KMPG Hrvatska also worked on it, which, given that it was hired by the then extraordinary management of Agrokor, and that there was a conflict of interest. Therefore, the expertise is considered illegal.

Expert witness Kamal pointed out that he was responsible for the finding and opinion, and that he couldn't disclose information about the persons who helped him due to the signed statement of confidentiality under GDPR. The County Court also received such an answer from KPMG's branch in Poland. That was enough for the Indictment Chamber to reject the motion to separate the expertise as illegal evidence in the case against ex-Agrokor boss Ivica Todoric.

This was not the case, however, for the High Criminal Court, which gave the Indictment Chamber of the County Court a clear instruction to conduct the so-called trial on the legality of the evidence, call Ismet Kamal as a witness, determine who participated in the preparation of the accounting and financial expertise and work out whether or not he was in a conflict of interest.

For more, make sure to check out our politics section.

October the 19th, 2021 - Following a name change to rid the company of its negative associations, the famous Cibona tower, the former seat of the formerly untouchable Ivica Todoric's all powerful Agrokor is now up for sale. The attractive space may well be appealing to many, but for many Croatian businesses, bad energy may dominate and throw a spanner in the works for a quick sale.

It seems a lifetime ago that the potential collapse of Agrokor was the single biggest threat to the Croatian economy. It seems like a much smaller concern in comparison to the economic situation of 2020 caused by the pandemic, but back in 2017, Ivica Todoric's alleged wrongdoing dominated the domestic media space. Fortenova Group, formerly Agrokor, has done an enormous amount of work to reshape what was a crumbling business on the very edge of total collapse, and under Fabris Perusko, the business side of things has recovered rather remarkably.  

Hard work has been done to ''rinse'' the company, only this time not of money, but of bad associations following a tremendous scandal involving former top dog Ivica Todoric and various other individuals, including some big government names. Now the Cibona tower in the City of Zagreb is up for grabs.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Fortenova Group has started selling off business premises located within the famous Cibona tower, the former headquarters of Todoric's Agrokor, which looms imposingly over its surroundings. 16 of the 21 floors of the building, which are majority owned by Fortenova Group, are now on the market, writes tportal.

The Colliers agency, which mediates in sales, emphasises that this is a ''famous office building'' in a prestigious location in the centre of Zagreb. According to their estimates, investors could achieve a rental yield of 7 to 9 percent per year, with the possibility of significant capital gains on top of that.

A total of 5,827 square metres of space is for sale, which includes 16 floors of office space and 65 garage spaces, which makes up about 76 percent of the skyscraper's area.

In addition to Fortenova Group, which has a 76 percent stake, the co-owners of the Cibona tower are CI-MED, which holds 10 percent, and Elektroprojekt, which owns 14 percent.

Currently, 35 percent of the advertised space is rented by various users.

For more, follow our dedicated business section.

October the 9th, 2020 - The name Ivica Todoric has become synonymous with high level corruption and masked deeds in the weird world of Croatian business in which politics tends to mix a little too closely.

The former boss of Agrokor (now Fortenova) has had a wild ride of sorts. From fleeding Croatia to London, where he lived in a wealthy area and was tried by a British court, to being sent back to Croatia and to Remetinec and then released after somehow finding the huge amount of money in cash needed to secure bail. Things were all quiet on the proverbial Western Front for several months as Ivica Todoric's trial loomed.

The former main man of Agrokor, a previously untouchable and somewhat precarious figure who had built Agrokor from nothing into the enormous, strategically important company it later became, was like a dog with a bone in his fight to shed light on the alleged corruption which surrounded the ''kidnapping of Agrokor'' as he so frequently referred to it. He profusely claimed that the many accusations against him were false and that he had plenty of evidence to prove that. He wrote his later somewhat infamous blog from the comfort of his former London pad and went about exposing all and sundry at the Croatian political top of the time, with former Deputy PM Martina Dalic, a favourite target of his, leaving her position amid the claims. You can read more about Ivica Todoric, the only English language translations of his blog and his varying escapades here.

Finally, Ivica Todoric's trial actually began, and he was proclaimed innocent. But why? The presiding judge offered her reasoning for her passing that verdict.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ivana Jakelic/VL writes on the 7th of October, 2020, the Zagreb County Court handed down the first verdict to the former owner of Agrokor, Ivica Todoric and his co-defendants and former business associates for extracting 1.26 million euros from Agrokor through the account of a Swiss company. Ivica Todoric, Ante Huljev, Piruska Canjuga and Nicole de Rossi were all acquitted.

"After the evidentiary proceedings, it hasn't been proven that the accused would've committed the criminal offenses in the manner in which they've been charged. In order to be found guilty, every allegation in the indictment list must be proven. In this procedure, the allegations from the indictment have not been proven,'' explained Judge Maja Stampar Stipic.

''The Trial Chamber found that the money paid was spent on advisory services. The state attorney's office didn't bring any evidence to the table that would contradict that,'' she added. The Council concluded that the engagement of the consulting company benefited Agrokor and that Mercator was purchased after that deal.

"This regarded the realisation of a very successful business venture," said the judge. The prosecution charged the four with extracting 1.2 million euros from Agrokor through the account of a Swiss company for services that were not performed.

Ivica Todoric's co-defendants denied their guilt and claimed that everything that happened was done to get a job done. The Prosecution, on the other hand, considered that the allegations in the indictment had been proven, ie that it was a job that hadn't been performed. They have since announced an appeal against the verdict.

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What with the global coronavirus pandemic, the threat of economic collapse and the need to reassess the way in which we live our lives, from our basic social interactions to the way we work, you've probably forgotten all about former Agrokor boss Ivica Todoric and his own role in the almost-destruction of the domestic economy.

Yes, Ivica Todoric is still around. He hasn't been forgotten about. His former lawyers, the well known Jadranka Slokovic and Cedo Prodanovic, who famously defended him in front of the British court in London, have stepped down from their positions in Todoric's regard, and now he has someone new fighting his corner...

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 6th of May, 2020, from next week, all of Croatia's legal ''elite'' will return to the scene, as will the many active lawsuits. From Ivo Sanader and Marina Lovric Merzel through to Nadan Vidosevic and, well... the list goes on and on and I'd be here for most of the day if I were to list all of these names. One of the more high-profile trials that will be found in court is the case of the former Agrokor boss Ivica Todoric.

RTL has discovered that Todoric's new lawyer is no less than Croatia's former USKOK chief Zeljko Zganjer. The other is Ljiljana Planinic. For those unfamiliar with USKOK, this institution is a body of the Croatian criminal justice system: The Croatian State Prosecutor's Office for the Suppression of Organised Crime and Corruption/Ured za suzbijanje korupcije i organiziranog kriminaliteta).

"Yesterday, I received a notification that I had been appointed ex-officio defense counsel for Ivica Todoric. It's a factually complex process,'' said the former USKOK boss, and in reference to the now infamous case in which there are 100,000 pages of documents, he said:

"It will take me a long time. I need to sit down and try to study the whole thing,'' he said. Regarding the difference between an ex-officio lawyer and the situation in which someone actually hires him as a lawyer, Zganjer said:

"There's no essential difference. A lawyer must work conscientiously and correctly and with dedication in both cases,''

In regard to the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, but also the Zagreb earthquake, he said:

"It simply came to our notice then. We as lawyers must accept the schedule of hearings. And each of us will do our best to provide legal protection to the extent which is possible.''

For more, follow our lifestyle page.

Smokvica is a little island located in the picturesque Sibenik archipelago in Dalmatia. This beautiful, quaint paradise was once used by the notorious, formerly untouchable Todoric family, the head of which is Ivica Todoric, the former owner of the Agrokor empire.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 18th of February, 2020, after the island was returned to state ownership after the Agrokor crisis broke out back in 2017, resulting in the sale of Todoric's property to try to attempt to cover costs incurred during his alleged dodgy dealings, the Ministry of State Property signed a thirty-year lease with Green Real Estate (Zelena nekretnina d.o.o.), founded by a Hungarian fund.

That lease was signed back in mid-2018.

After Lex Agrokor came into force and Agrokor was signed over to the state, eventually transforming and much later becoming the current Fortenova Group, Smokvica almost disappeared from public view in terms of media coverage. This stunning yet mysterious island was used privately by the Todoric family for some twenty years, and when the dynasty fell and the truth came to light, the problem of revitalising the island of Smokvica arose.

This was the topic of a recent meeting at the Ministry of State Property (MDI) with tenant representatives, Sibenik-Knin County, the Municipality of Rogoznica and the relevant ministries in search of a solution for a possible conversion model that would be legally applicable to the island of Smokvica, on which there is still some military infrastructure.

Now that Smokvica is entering a new phase after twenty years or so of being the ''home'' of the Todoric family during the summer months, shut off from the rest of Croatia and indeed the rest of the world, an agreement is being attempted to be reached by involved parties and the current thirty-year lease holders to revitalise the island which was once the paradise of one of the country's most notorious families.

Make sure to follow our dedicated business page for much more.

The former Agrokor is now Fortenova. It has gone from a collapsing empire of sand threatening to take down the entire Croatian economy with it, to a stable company generally operating with profits under Fabris Perusko. Its new name may help to remove it from its difficult past, and its new CEO may help to dull some of the stains left on it from the Todoric family reign, but Ivica Todoric is still sticking to his guns when it comes to the multitude of accusations he has thrown out over the last two or three years.

Life has taken a dramatic turn for the former Gazda (boss) of Agrokor. From private islands, yachts and helicopters to a fundraiser for his family who are apparently struggling to survive, one thing nobody can accuse Ivica Todoric of is being boring.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 16th of January, 2020, Ivica Todoric convened a press conference at which he spent the time talking about new evidence he has of apparent crime in the Agrokor affair and new findings about the now infamous Borg group.

He says he is the only one who really knows the whole truth, but it's ironic that despite much time spent on it, he has had no evidence to back up that truth to this day. He thinks that it is the Croatian political system that has stopped the truth from coming to light, Vecernji list writes.

Although DORH rejected his criminal charges against Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and former Economy Minister Martina Dalic, both of whom are HDZ, he announced that he would continue a private lawsuit.

He showed five emails of the so-called correspondence with the Borg group and claimed that their goal was to spread the falsities about Agrokor.

He is convinced that the majority owners of Agrokor should have become Croatian banks and Croatian creditors because they had the highest claims. He added that he had been forced to transfer ownership of the company to foreign banks.

He believes that the Borg group had long since prepared to rob a large part of Agrokor and was the one to finally throw Agrokor to its knees. "Today, the processes they conduct are criminal, the settlement is no longer beind done in the way they agreed," Todoric explained.

"We all know that three years ago, one of the most important topics was the Agrokor affair, which influenced events in this part of Europe politically, socially and economically. There was a lot of talk about Agrokor, and a lot was written. During all those years, I never held a press conference, nor did I come before the public in this way,'' said Ivica Todoric at the beginning of the conference.

"It all started when [Martina] Dalic said there would be a new assembly. I was shocked, it was clear to me that Plenkovic was behind it all. I made the decision for it to be the least damaging for me and the other participants. I withdrew, up until the 16th of March, I had no idea that something like this could happen.

I had no documentation, no papers. I was sure that I could cetainly prove what had happen to me and that I'd win the whole Agrokor affair because I knew the whole truth, only my problem was that I had no evidence for that truth. I had to patiently build my own tower of maps that would eventually create a picture of everything, and then I needed to be able to present it in a quality way,'' said Ivica Todoric.

Make sure to follow our dedicated politics page for more.

After Ivica Todoric revealed publicly that his family is struggling to survive, a Split association will organize a humanitarian effort this Sunday. Citizens can bring food, clothing and other supplies. The president of the association promised that he would deliver everything in person to Kulmorovi dvori on Monday January 20, 2020.

As reported by Lauren Simmonds/TCN, on January 9, 2020; Ivica Todoric, who is awaiting trial in Croatia, has alerted the media that he and his family are struggling to survive. His announcement has provoked quite a response because he was known to have been one of the richest people in Croatia for decades.

His words have been taken seriously by Jakša Bulić, president of the association for national development “Bili cvitak”.

Bili Cvitak Launches Humanitarian Effort to Help Todorics

Therefore, he has announced a humanitarian effort "Let's Help the Todorics", which will be held on Sunday, January 19, 2020 in Solin. The association calls on all citizens of goodwill to donate food, hygienic supplies, clothing and footwear to Ivica Todorić and his family, according to Dalmacija danas on January 13, 2020.

“We have decided to launch "Let's Help the Todorics" a humanitarian effort for religious citizens and Catholics collect donations and supplies for the Todorics. On Sunday, January 19, 2020 we will collect everything from 10am to 12pm in front of the post office in Solin,” announced Jakša Bulić, president of the association.

Donations Will be Delivered to Todoric Residence on Monday

They group has already participated in various humanitarian efforts, such as an effort to build a school and a water supply system in Ogorje.

Citizens can bring food, shoes, clothing and other supplies, and the president of the association confirmed to Dalmacija danas that he will bring everything in person to Kulmorovi dvori, the Todoric residence, on Monday.

“It is up to Mr. Todoric whether he will accept our donations, but it is important for us as citizens to show our goodwill,” Bulić emphasized.

Follow our Lifestyle page to keep updated on the upcoming trial of Ivica Todoric.