Exactly one year after handing himself over to the British authorities at Charing Cross Station in London, the extradition of Ivica Todorić to Croatia to face trial for his alleged crimes in Agrokor, has finally happened.

To briefly recall, Ivica Todorić handed himself over to the British authorities following the issuing of a European Arrest Warrant by Croatia. The metropolitan police then detained Todorić as the warrant prescribed, before releasing him on bail after he paid the £100,000 fee. He continued to live at relative liberty in London for the next year, fighting his looming extradition.

Earlier this year, the British rejected Todorić's appeals and approved his extradition, and exactly one year to the day of his first contact with the London police, the British extradited him, on a regular Croatia Airlines flight, back to the Croatian capital, where the Croatian police awaited his arrival.

Well known N1 journalist Hrvoje Krešić tweeted yesterday afternoon that Todorić was in the process of transition and that he was expected in Croatia soon.

As Index writes on the 7th of November, 2018, at 16:45, HRT announced that Ivica Todorić had been seen at London Heathrow Airport.

The regular Croatia Airlines flight from London Heathrow was delayed as boarding took a while, and Todorić was the first to enter the aircraft with his police escorts. He was separated from other passengers, and his wife Vesna Todorić was not allowed to sit next to him.

His wife, Vesna, who had to leave her husband upon landing in Zagreb, was asked how she felt. She responded, visibly shaken: ''How would you feel if you were extradited? He's an innocent man. My husband is innocent, he hasn't stolen anything. I'm going home, and he's going to jail.''

Todorić himself remained calm, and was allegedly reading British newspapers and drinking Jana water on board. Although filming and taking photographs on the flight was strictly forbidden, upon being asked how he felt by journalists on the flight, he said that he ''felt good''.

The extradition of Ivica Todorić was nowhere near as eventful as many had hoped, and his flight ended up landing at Zagreb's Franjo Tudjman Airport at 20:58 last night, where a police transfer van was already waiting for him.

Todorić didn't leave the airport through the regular passenger terminal, and was arrested and escorted to the police van upon his arrival at Zagreb Airport, the police then took him straight to Remetinec prison.

To recall, official investigations against Ivica Todorić, his sons Ivan and Ante, and twelve of Agrokor's former managers and auditors were launched last year for the illegal obtaining of one billion and 142 million kuna from Agrokor, which almost dragged the Croatian economy to its knees. Click here for detailed information on exactly what happened within Agrokor, and get better acquainted with Todorić's situation up until now here.

Want to keep up with more info on the extradition of Ivica Todorić and the processes that will now follow? Make sure to keep up with our news page.

ZAGREB, November 8, 2018 - The founder of the ailing Agrokor conglomerate, Ivica Todorić, arrived in Zagreb from London at 2050 hrs Wednesday after a UK court granted Croatia's request for his extradition on October 25.

Todoric's wife Vesna told N1 broadcaster that her husband would prove that he had not taken a single euro out of the company.

Todorić, his two sons Ivan and Ante and 12 Agrokor executives and auditors are under investigation for illegally siphoning more than a billion kuna from the debt-laden conglomerate. Todorić was taken to prison immediately upon landing at Zagreb Airport. Detention was ordered to prevent him from tampering with witnesses. Only one witness has not yet been questioned in the investigation launched last year.

Todorić was arrested in London on November 7 last year based on a European Arrest Warrant issued by Croatia. He fled to London after an investigation was launched in the Agrokor case, claiming that he was being politically persecuted by Croatian authorities. He was released the same day after paying bail of one hundred thousand pounds and issued with precautionary measures. Following the first ruling concerning his extradition on April 23, Todorić was set with sterner precautionary measures and was required to report to the court every day instead of just twice a week which he had been ordered to do until then.

Todorić handed himself over to British authorities 22 days after Croatian police inspectors entered his Zagreb residence and an investigation was launched on suspicion that he, with the assistance of his sons and associates, siphoned money from the ailing conglomerate.

The High Court in London on 24 July rejected Todorić's request for the right of appeal to the initial ruling of April 23. After his appeal was rejected, Todorić requested another opportunity to be heard by the court which was upheld and a hearing was set for September 6. His defence team then applied for an adjournment claiming that they had only just taken over the case and that they required time to study the case and that they had new evidence supporting his claim of political persecution.

Even though his defence announced that it would present new evidence, at the hearing on October 25, nothing new was presented and the defence's only argument was that Croatia had issued the European Arrest Warrant prematurely, prior to being certain that the investigation would result in an indictment and trial.

One of Todorić's defence attorneys, Barrister James Hines, referred to depositions by witnesses given to the USKOK anti-corruption office which were later leaked in public in the Hotmail scandal and said that he hoped that he would prove political influence on the investigation.

However, during the hearing on October 25, Hines, who presented his arguments for almost two hours said that the warrant for Todorić's arrest was issued without a confirmed indictment and based only on the decision to launch an investigation which did not necessarily guarantee that his client would in fact be indicted, meaning that the result of the investigation was presumed.

Counsel for the prosecution presented arguments in defence of the lower-instance ruling on extradition, and underscored that a lot of evidence had been collected prior to issuing the arrest warrant.

Judge Duncan Ouseley dismissed the defence motion to allow Todorić to appeal, making the first-instance ruling final and paving the way for his extradition. After the court approved his extradition to Croatia, Todorić said that he was "a little disappointed" but that he was ready for new battles.

Investigation of Todorić and others launched for over a billion kuna in unlawful gain at Agrokor

The Zagreb County Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into Todorić, his sons Ivan and and Ante and 12 Agrokor executives and auditors for unlawfully acquiring 1.142 billion kuna.

Aside from Todoric and his son, the investigation includes Alojzije Pandžić, Damir Kuštrak, Hrvoje Balent, Ivica Crnjac, Olivio Discordia, Marijan Alagušić, Sanja Hrstić, Mislav Galić, Tomislav Lučić, Piruška Canjuga, Ljerka Puljić and Ivica Sertić. All sat on Agrokor's management or supervisory board. Discordia and Hrstić worked for the Baker Tilly audit company, which conducted audit reports for Agrokor.

The accusations against Todorić include 320 million kuna acquired for "one legal entity" through document forgery and unlawful book keeping.

Todorić is under investigation in another case. The investigation was launched on 18 December 2017 in connection with a 117.5 million kuna loan which the Nexus Private Equity Partners investment fund gave Agrokor through the Nexus Ulaganja investment company.

Todorić's son Ivan, Nexus management board chair Marko Lesić and management board member Krešimir Rudžjak are also being investigated in that case.

Todorić has 64.4 million euro in frozen assets in Croatia, the UK, the Netherlands and Canada. He financed his stay in London with money earned from the sale of his wife's family home.

For more on Ivica Todorić, click here.

ZAGREB, November 7, 2018 - According to unofficial information in Croatian media, the founder of the ailing Agrokor conglomerate, Ivica Todorić, should arrive in Zagreb from London at 8 p.m. on Wednesday after a UK court granted Croatia's request for his extradition on October 25.

Todorić, his two sons Ivan and Ante and 12 Agrokor executives and auditors are under investigation for illegally acquiring more than one billion kuna. Only Todorić was ordered to be placed in detention, so as soon as he lands, he should be taken to prison.

Detention was ordered to prevent him from tampering with witnesses. Only one witness has not been questioned in the investigation launched last year.

For more on the Agrokor affair, click here.

In case you didn't know, Martina Dalic, the former deputy prime minister who spent a long time at Andrej Plenkovic's side, left her position earlier this year amid not only the Hotmail affair, in which she was sending highly sensitive emails via no less than Hotmail, but amid growing suspicion surrounding her in regard to the very messy Agrokor affair.

Now, despite the public's general opinion of her being less than sparkling and with all sorts of unsavoury suspicions and accusations about her involvement in Agrokor still flying around, left unanswered, Martina Dalic went ahead and published a book on Agrokor, causing raised eyebrows among many politicians, including MOST's leader Bozo Petrov, who was heavily involved in the Agrokor situation when it first came to light, especially given the fact that the crisis saw the former HDZ-MOST coalition collapse.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes on the 30th of October, 2018, Finance Minister Zdravko Maric, who felt the very personal unpleasantness of the Agrokor crisis on his own skin, stated quite bluntly that he didn't have any desire to comment on whether or not Martina Dalic should return to the government at all.

Marić used to work for Agrokor before taking up his position within the Croatian Government, this caused a lot of suspicion around him, too, as many across the political spectrum and in the general public failed to believe that he had no knowledge of the plethora of underhand deals and the threatening collapse of the company that eventually raised its ugly head in the spring of 2017. Despite the controversy, Maric stuck to his guns and held onto his position, with the situation eventually blowing over. Despite that, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that he'd prefer to avoid discussing Martina Dalic or her new book.

"I've got a good relationship with all the people I've worked with and am working with now, and if we have some disagreement, then we find a common language," the finance minister said briefly.

''I haven't read Martina Dalic's book and I don't know if I'll manage to,'' Maric added at the margins of Poslovni Dnevnik's conference. In response to a journalist's question as to whether everything worked well in regard to Agrokor's extraordinary administration, and why Martina Dalic had to leave, Maric expressed his lack of desire to comment on whether or not she should return to the government.

As for the dangers the Uljanik shipyard situation represents towards public debt, Maric said Uljanik's influence will of course have an effect on the overall fiscal policy outcome for this year.

"The only good thing about it is that it will have a one-off effect. From our side, we intend to solve [the situation] as soon as possible so as to avoid any further consequences. Nevertheless, by the end of the year, according to our projections and expectations, public debt will continue to decline,'' Maric emphasised.

"With regard to taking further steps, we can't influence the worsening global environment that much, but do we have certain mechanisms in our hands. I, as finance minister, am responsible for implementing fiscal policy. All we propose is a responsible, rational fiscal policy that suits all of the challenges we're facing. We're putting emphasis on a more stable public debt, but the basic idea of us all should be ​​economic growth, which will lead to stronger employment growth,'' Maric noted.

Journalists present at the conference in were also very interested in the disappearance of the so-called "mantra" about budget savings which has been being talking about a lot over recent years.

"I wouldn't say that is stopped. If you look at the structure of the expenditure side of the budget, the biggest item is the retirement expenditure. It's true that the issue of expenditure has been challenged more than once and we must not give up on that. We reduced interest costs by over two billion kuna, but we're still paying too much,'' Maric said.

Regarding retirement, the question of whether or not retirement benefits in the new Law on Croatian Defenders represent a budgetary burden arose, to which Maric responded that his ministry had looked into potential financial implications during the process of the adoption of the naw Law on Croatian Defenders.

"The Law on Croatian Defenders is fiscally viable and isn't an additional burden for the budget," Maric concluded.

Want to find out more about what exactly happened within Agrokor and learn more about Martina Dalic's role within it all? Click here and follow the news on Dalić, the Hotmail affair, the writing of Lex Agrokor, and more.

Click here for the original article by Tomislav Pili for Poslovni Dnevnik

The Ivica Todorić latest... Although the High Court in London refused the former Agrokor boss' appeal and confirmed that it was indeed now time for him to return to Croatia, there is another possible remedy to his situation: a request for appeal to the Supreme Court. It ain't over til the fat lady sings, as they say in Ole' Blighty.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 26th of October, 2018, despite being very much under the watchful eye of the Metropolitan police, Ivica Todorić is still at relative liberty in the British capital. After the High Court refused his appeal and confirmed his extradition to Croatia, it doesn't necessarily mean we've come to the very end of the line. Let us not pretend that the chances of him managing to slither out of this situation are great, they aren't, the possibilities of success in him submitting an appeal to the Supreme Court are extremely narrow. Such a move could only really ''take off'' if his rights have been somehow violated, for example, as N1 reports.

Jadranka Sloković, Ivica Todorić's attorney, says she doesn't know whether or not Todorić will decide to attempt to go down that route.

"That's not my decision," she stated simply. It appears also that nobody is quite sure when Todorić will have to return to Croatia at all.

"I don't know exactly when those deadlines are, and according to what I've heard from his English lawyers, it can take about three to four weeks, a maximum of four weeks. Even if he was to go along with this appeal and it ends up getting rejected, it's about four weeks,'' noted Sloković.

Paperwork and red tape will be, as usual, the main hold up should there be any delays in the upcoming process. The transfer from London, where Todorić has been living for about a year, back to Zagreb, needs to be very carefully arranged by the police in Zagreb and in London, as well dealing with who will accompany him on what will likely be a very regular flight from England to Croatia.

"That's all their thing, and as you know, these processes aren't public so we can't talk about them," stated Davor Božinović, the current Croatian Minister of the Interior.

Back in Croatia in Remetinec (Zagreb prison), a decision on the appeal has been being awaited, and a witness who is apparently currently not in Croatia should be questioned.

Todorić's defense thinks that that one witness in question poses no reason for Todorić to be held in custody, but the Zagreb County State Attorney's Office is sticking to its guns. The real question is does it actually make any sense.

"I don't think that it's likely to be for this reason alone, even the court in London has allowed him (Todorić) to remain at liberty with precautionary measures in place," said Aleksandar Maršavelski, a professor of law at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb.

While the Zagreb State Attorney's Office continues investigating, it has, at least currently, revealed absolutely nothing about its plans regarding this issue.

In addition to the questioning of various witnesses, an ongoing accounting audit should be carried out within the scope of the investigation - this will apparently be carried out by a Polish company. Involved attorneys are not particularly pleased with this because they believe, among other things, that this will slow the process down even more and increase costs. They aren't sure it will even be completed on time.

Fran Olujić, Ante Todorić's lawyer stated that he has serious doubts that such an examination can be carried out and completed in the time given, which is a mere three months.

The Agrokor case which rocked Croatia has been being led against Todorić and numerous others who once made up the gigantic company's former management body for an entire year.

Follow the latest news about the former Agrokor supremo here.

ZAGREB, October 25, 2018 - Justice Minister Dražen Bošnjaković said on Thursday it was not known exactly when the UK would extradite Agrokor founder Ivica Todorić to Croatia but that the Croatian Government  would make it happen in the shortest time possible.

With his extradition now confirmed and looming, the former Agrokor boss still isn't giving up. The latest from Ivica Todorić.

ZAGREB, October 25, 2018 - The founder of the Agrokor food and retail conglomerate, Ivica Todorić, will be extradited to Croatia, British judge Duncan Ouseley ruled on Thursday.

ZAGREB, October 24, 2018 - London's High Court is expected on Thursday to deliver a final ruling on the right of the founder of the Croatian Agrokor food and retail group, Ivica Todorić, to appeal against the lower-court ruling on his extradition to Croatia.ZAGREB, October 24, 2018 - London's High Court is expected on Thursday to deliver a final ruling on the right of the founder of the Croatian Agrokor food and retail group, Ivica Todorić, to appeal against the lower-court ruling on his extradition to Croatia.

A new business venture for the daughter of the former Agrokor boss?