Former Croatian Prime Minister charged with corruption

Croatia’s former Prime Minister has allegedly received some €480,000 in kickback after he facilitated for an Austrian bank to make loans to Croatia.

1 September 2011, 12:00am

Local news agencies reports how the Croatian authorities indicted former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, accusing him of taking bribes from Austrian bank Hypo in exchange for facilitating loans to Croatia.

Sanader allegedly received some €480,000 from the Hypo Alpe Adria banking group between 1994 and 1995 at the time when he was serving as deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In exchange for the payments, the Croatian government received a loan of some €10.3 million from the Hypo bank for the construction of an embassy.