Customs Officer and Son

"It's not that much money because when they split it up they all got barely 5-6 million," local jokers said about the financial transactions.

For now the Pozarevac economic court is facing an insignificant law suit that could take years to solve with the Pozarevac Bank and Milan Djurcic (owner of the Stig car dealership) suing each other. Djurcic is being sued for a foreign currency loan that another plaintiff invested in the bank and which he never took. That suit is over just 2-3 million DEM.

It's much more interesting to look at what happened in the bank during hyperinflation when it was full of foreign currency.

Bank director Dragoljub Mitic, once nominated for National Bank Governor, was the only person who decided about loans. He told the court that only the director decides about loans not the credit board.

"Those were Dinar loans given mainly to three privileged companies which used the money to buy foreign currency from the bank," Djurcic said and noted that the Dinar value melted away within months with the foreign currency being shared out. "They robbed at least 50 million DEM," says Djurcic who spent 21 years working abroad and brought a large sum of money into the country in 1989.

The first of the companies that got those loans is the mysterious Salus International, a foreign trade company registered in Cyprus with offices in Belgrade. The owners are anonymous but bank sources said the loans were signed for by Radoslav Sekulic who was federal customs chief at the time. Under the law that company was ineligible for loans. The second company is Tekstil Best Ivanjica whose founder is Dusko Sekulic, son of Radoslav. Djurcic said Sekulic also signed his sons contracts with the bank which would automatically invalidate the loans. Time really was money then and it was understandable if the father signed the loans so the son wouldn't waste time. Radoslav Sekulic was involved in money deals as a young man: he was a croupier in the Metropol hotel and now he is advisor to Radoje Kontic. The third company is Delta M, a trade company owned by a certain Miskovic who was director of Zupljanka Krusevac then and now owns the Delta Bank in Belgrade.