The 2014 ruling of the Administrative Court in Zagreb, which confirmed the decision of the Ministry of Finance that Marko Perković Thompson is obliged to pay 1,164,211.42 kuna in taxes, has been known for some time. Now the Administrative Court in Zagreb has confirmed his liabilities.
The six-page ruling shows how alleged partners from Germany, through their testimony before the Administrative Court, attempted to save Thompson from paying tax on undeclared income, which had been assessed by the Tax Administration.
Prompted by information from the investigation into Fima Media, at the end of 2010 the Tax Administration examined Thompson’s income and expenditures in 2007 and determined that the assets he acquired in that year were significantly greater than the declared income that could justify the acquisition of those assets.
Since the singer, even in repeated discussions with tax inspectors, failed to provide convincing evidence of the origin of the money, in September 2012 the Ministry of Finance assessed income tax and surtax amounting to 1,164,211.42 kuna for 2007. Fearing enforcement, Perković paid that amount, but filed a lawsuit with the Administrative Court in Zagreb seeking annulment of the Ministry of Finance’s decision and a refund of the money.
As can be seen from the ruling of the Administrative Court in Zagreb, the case was assigned to Judge Vlaho Baselji Goce.
Thompson was heard before the Administrative Court on December 9, 2013. He claimed that the amount which the Tax Administration considered his income earned in 2007, and on which tax was assessed, was not his income, but a joint investment of a partnership in a construction project that he began in 2007 with two partners from Germany, Božo Bagarić and Stipan Šteko. He stated that in the first half of 2007 he signed a partnership agreement with them for the purchase of construction land on Generalski stol Street in Remete and the construction of several buildings into which the three partners jointly invested 450,000 euros.
He claimed that in June 2007 his partners Bagarić and Šteko handed him 320,000 euros in cash at the office of Zdravko Barišić (his manager), which they placed in some kind of bags, and that he took that money the same day to Privredna Banka and deposited it into his current account, reports Jutarnji.hr.
On his account at Privredna Banka, Thompson assured Judge Baselji Goce, there were already his own 130,000 euros, which secured a total of 450,000 euros for the partnership venture. From that account, in agreement with the partners, he paid amounts for the purchase of construction land in Remete, and later for the construction of a building which, as he claimed, was only one of several planned.
According to the 2007 sales contract, Perković registered himself as the sole owner of the entire construction site.
Since Perković did not submit to the court any material evidence to confirm his story that the investment in construction plots and the building in Remete was not paid exclusively with his own money, but that it was a partnership with two other partners, Judge Baselji Goce decided to question his alleged partners at trial. He also requested that the singer submit to the court at least material evidence he mentioned in his testimony before the court — proof of a one-time cash deposit of 320,000 euros into his current account at Privredna Banka in mid-2007, which was allegedly handed to him in cash by two friends from Germany.
However, instead of proof of a one-time deposit into the PBZ account, Perković submitted to the court copies of three payment orders in kuna to Štedbanka dated May 10 and 11 and June 12, 2007, totaling one million kuna, and a copy of a payment order to Štedbanka dated June 4 in the amount of 100,000 euros. “Given that in this case there was no one-time deposit, nor was it a deposit in euros, nor to an account at Privredna Banka, nor in the countervalue of 320,000 euros, the Court considers that Marko Perković did not prove the claims in his statement with the attached copies of the payments,” Judge Vlaho Baselji Goce stated in the ruling.
However, even more spectacular were the statements given separately before the Administrative Court on March 3, 2014, by Perković’s alleged partners from Germany.
The alleged partner Božo Bagarić told the judge that Šteko and he gave Thompson money in four equal cash tranches — three tranches in euros and one in kuna. Bagarić described in the courtroom that the cash was always handed over in the office of Zdravko Barišić (Thompson’s manager). He recounted how they transported cash amounts by car from Germany to Croatia across the state border by placing the collected money in an envelope or bag and keeping it in the passenger compartment until they arrived at Barišić’s office, writes Jutarnji.
In the ruling, the judge notes that Bagarić’s testimony is in complete contradiction to Thompson’s claim that the partners handed him the entire cash amount of 320,000 euros at once. He also points out that Bagarić’s testimony contradicts the payment orders to the Štedbanka account that Thompson submitted to the court, which show that the payments were not even approximately of the same amounts nor in the currencies that Bagarić stated before the court.
The alleged partner Stipan Šteko also told the Administrative Court that he and Bagarić did not bring the money for the construction partnership in Remete to Croatia all at once (as Thompson claimed), but on four occasions — three times in euros and the fourth time in kuna in the countervalue of 100,000 euros. He stated that they transported the money by counting it in Germany and then distributing it through the clothes they were wearing (the ruling does not specify in which parts of the clothing it was hidden). As soon as they crossed the Croatian state border, Šteko claimed, they would drive to Barišić’s office and deliver the cash.
Judge Baselji Goce stated that the testimony of partner Stipan Šteko contradicts not only Thompson’s testimony, as well as the payment orders to the Štedbanka account that the singer submitted to the court as alleged material evidence, but in a number of elements also contradicts the testimony of partner Božo Bagarić. The testimonies of Šteko and Bagarić differ in a number of elements — in the method of transporting cash to Croatia, in the amounts of the invested partnership contributions, in the manner of their payment…
It should be clarified that the alleged partners Bagarić and Šteko were obviously aware that transporting hundreds of thousands of euros in cash from Germany across the state border into Croatia is illegal, so they devised a story that they transported the money hidden in the cabin, that is, in the clothes they were wearing.
Both alleged partners from Germany claimed in court that they had great mutual trust with Perković, which is why they were not overly concerned about whether Perković would be only partially paid or overpaid for his partnership contributions. They assured the court that due to mutual trust they had no need to secure their partnership contributions in any way. They did not register their ownership rights to the construction land and the constructed building in Remete, as they claimed before the court, in order to avoid additional tax liability.
The judge, however, assessed their explanations as unclear, economically and practically illogical and unconvincing.
The court’s position on the alleged partnership agreement submitted by Marko Perković Thompson is also interesting. It states that Perković, Bagarić and Šteko concluded that agreement in April 2007. However, the agreement was notarized by public notary Z. Č. only in March 2011, almost four years after the alleged partners entered into the partnership and after Thompson was summoned to the Tax Administration in January 2011 to explain the origin of assets acquired in 2007. Judge Baselji Goce also declared the partnership agreement unauthentic.
Let us recall that the Croatian extremist Thompson was also sued by neighbors: it has now been published what he owns and how much his income amounts to.
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