THE MISSED TARGET

Frozen Serb Accounts in the USA

AIM, BELGRADE, May 16, 1995

The news about the list of officials and companies of Bosnian Serbs and the Serbs from the FR of Yugoslavia whose accounts had been frozen in the USA caused panic in Belgrade - but only for one night. The day after, it already became clear that the decision of the State department did not bring the collapse of Serb economy any closer.

• Ever since the sanctions were introduced, just insignificant, unoperative sums of money are on our accounts in the USA - Ljilja Zorkic says, the spokeswoman of the "Simpo" factory from Vranje, whose head is the Vice-President of the Serb Government, Dragan Tomic. - I interpret publication of this list primarily as a means to exert psychological pressure.

Ms Zorkic, like all the other Serb business people, understood this and gave a sigh of relief when she read the list. What her and other companies feared the most was not freezing of their accounts - this was expected ever since the sanctions were introduced. The real reason for fear was the possibility that the American agencies have detected various "phantom" firms under Serb control, registered abroad. Truly enough, numerous enterprises are listed in the document published by Clinton's administriation, which neither by their name nor by the seat of their headquarters even remind of Serbia. Even if one could suspect that "East Point Holding Limited" seated in Nicosia, or Pambos Joanides from the same city actually work for Milosevic's Government, who would ever imagine that Mr Maadi from Teheran also represents Serb interests, or that "Nigerian Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd." from Lagos, "Furniture Americana" seated in New Jersey and English "J & K Limited" have the same task?

How ever the list of these and many more other revealed names - on 30 pages typed with a single spacing, may seem as an impressive result of a thorough investigation, it is just the tip of an iceberg.

Serb business people started organizing new ways of doing business even before the introduction of the sanctions, and they established channles though which they could deal undisturbed. A whole network of ficticious banks emerged, various shareholding companies and representative offices which are scattered from Central Africa to Siberia and from China to Australia. Even if someone tracked down such operations, the money would disappear overnight on private accounts and then quickly be redirected into business transactions again, when need arose. Generally, it was not even necessary to make too many transactions, because these surfers on financial oceans were not persecuted too diligently by anyone, since the host states also made significant profits from their business deals.

• It is impossible for us to work only in the USA and Germany, Ms Zorkic says. - As for other countries, our real problem is that various roundabout ways cause great additional expenses.

Aware of the risk of remaining without money and maybe even end up in jail - two representatives of "Jugometal" were actually arrested and sentenced in Germany for violation of the embargo - Serb businessmen mostly strive and generally succeed to be a few steps ahead of international inspectors. That is how many firms on the latest American list have already been closed down for major transactions. Those which have not, are at a safe distance from jurisdiction of US agencies: in Cyprus, Greece, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, China, Russia and some African countries, including Muslim ones. The most significant points of violation of the sanctions, as financial experts from Serbia claim were not mentioned at all in the document from the USA.

As an indication that the document included in the decision from Washington has not been prepared too carefully, the fact is mentioned that not only addresses, but even the cities of their seat is not mentioned for some of the firms (for instance, "Markonizoni", Serbia). The previously mentioned Mr Maadi's first name is not given, for example, but just the initial N. which probably appears in a document. Some addresses are non-existant, such as "1 Kolazceja, 11.000 Belgrade" cited as the residence of a certain Slobodan Andjic.

The data are not more precise concerning numbers of the accounts themselves either. Owners of these accounts are not all known, and some of those who were mentioned, as they say, do not have accounts in the USA at all.

• I have never had an account in the USA - Zeljko Cvijanovic says, who is the head of the Belgrade office of the news agency of Bosnian Serbs "Srna". - On the other hand, I know personally some financially powerful Serbs in Bosnia who do have a business interest in America, but their names are not on the list.

Biljana Plavsic declares that the blockade can refer only to the account she once had while she studied in the United States of America as a Fulbright scholarship holder, which is empty for years. It is also not clear why certain institutions such as the Chamber of the Economy of Serbia have been included in the list when they have never had accounts abroad.

In the American Embassy in Belgrade it was verified that mentioning of someone's name does not mean that this person actually possesses money or an account in the banks there, but that this person's funds will be frozen if he/she opens an account while this regulation is valid. Therefore, the appearance of names of Karadzic and Mladic for instance, does not mean that these two have money in America, just as the fact that Milosevic's name does not appear on the list does not necessarily mean that he does not.

Such relativistic stance concerning information of its very source add force to the thesis about short range of an apparently sensational document. It should also be added that even those who do have money on accounts abroad, in countries other than the USA, will not stop using them because the force of the presented paper reaches only as far as jurisdiction of the Government of USA. This practically means that evev the listed persons will be able to do business even in the USA if they have a channel through a company which has not been listed. That these channels still operate unhindered is verified by the fact that Karic brothers who are mentioned both personally and as owners of their company, continued to cash pension checks of the US Government a day after the hubbub around the list was raised.

Dragan Cicic