Serbian private companies earning huge profits in arms deals

The weekly said that the GIM company (owned by Goran Todorovic and represented on several occasions by Branko Stefanovic, father of Internal Affairs Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic) had contracts with the Krusik munitions plant and Prva Petoletka hydraulics plant which earned it 4.5 million Dollars.

The involvement of Branko Stefanovic in deals with Krusik and the sale of its munitions at privileged prices to GIM were revealed by whistleblower Aleksandar Obradovic.

NIN said it had access to the contracts, export permits and end user certificates which showed that “GIM signed contracts with Krusik and Prva Petoletka worth 7,184,000 and sold their products to buyers in Saudi Arabia for 12,462,000 Dollars”.

GIM made 5.3 million Dollars from the deals as well as a commission of five percent of the amount paid to Krusik (another 359,200 Dollars), NIN said and added that the expenses for the transport of the products from the military industry plants to Saudi Arabia amounted to no more than a million Dollars for four flights and transport to the airport in Nis.

The transport from the plants was organized by the Panekspres company which is owned by Zoran Pantelic, a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and its local councilor in Lucani. The weekly said that Panekspres doubled its profits between 2015 and 2018.