Our Man in Paris

After assaulting a French co-worker, Miodrag Zecevic earned the new title of former director of the Franco-Yugoslav bank in Paris. "He attacked me with brass knuckles," the bank employee said. VREME learned that the French gendarmerie was involved as well. The bank is under an imposed management regime which means, under French law, that Zecevic can’t even step inside it. Zecevic is also refusing to return to Belgrade.

The bank, founded with French and Yugoslav capital, has recorded losses but VREME sources said it wasn’t big enough to endanger its operations. The sources said this is "a personnel problem - who represents the Beogradska Banka as a shareholder of the Franco-Yugoslav bank". Zecevic refused to return home although demands for his return came from Borka Vucic, director of Beogradska Banka, Zlatan Perucic, Beobanka director, and Bozidar Gazivoda, Yugoslav National Bank (NBJ) governor and deputy FRY finance minister. They all went to Paris recently to clear up the mess and even Slobodan Milosevic was informed of the incident. VREME faxed Zecevic a request for a comment but by the time this issue of VREME went to press he had not replied.

A VREME correspondent in Paris said the bank had faced problems for months before the incident and was a frequent topic in the press. It was blocked after a law suit filed in the Paris trade court by Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia over a transaction agreement under which the NBJ approved 168 million French francs to Zecevic’s bank. The Franco-Yugoslav bank planned to get money out of accounts in two French banks and the former Yugoslav republics claimed those accounts belonged to them as well. The French press claims there are disputed accounts in nine French banks totaling 370 million French francs, 500 million DEM, 100 million Swiss francs and 111 million USD.

Zecevic has always worked with money. He was born on May 1, 1939 in Lijeva Rijeka, Montenegro, studied at the Belgrade University School of Economics and got a doctorate on the problem of investments in tourism. He is married with two children. He started his career in the NBJ and became one of the youngest directors at age 36. In the early 1980s he became vice-chairman of the management board at the Udruzena Beogradska bank when Milosevic was chairman. They established close and friendly relations and Zecevic often bragged about their friendship. In the early 1990s he was rumored to be set to become the first prime minister after the first multi-party elections as the author of the public loan for the revival of Serbia.

He told NIN weekly how he arrived at that idea: "I though about what we could do. I though about where the money was and concluded that the population was holding it. Since Milosevic and I were good friends I told him about it and he agreed with me."

In another interview he said he is "a Serb and a Yugoslav and a citizen of the world by trade. I have been working with the world for 30 years. It is my patriotic duty to use all my wisdom and knowledge to contribute to the country." That philosophy makes it logical that Zecevic would go around Paris selling Milosevic’s book and earn good money by selling it for 450 francs when it cost 30 in Belgrade.

Zecevic also dreamed up a number of other projects: large scale leasing deals, the highway from the Hungarian border to the Bulgarian border, Belgrade’s metro, electricity plants in Kosovo and Kolubara, the Dunav-Tisa-Dunav channel, gas stations, and a business center in Belgrade.

The Franco-Yugoslav bank started working in July 1978 and Zecevic took over in early 1986.

He was given the French Legion of Honor on the 200th anniversary of the French revolution with the explanation that "he is a man who unites expertise and warmth and achieves much stronger contacts with French businessmen by using diplomatic expertise. He threw a banquet in the elite Automobile Club on Paris’ Place De Concorde and spent 60,000 francs of the bank’s money for it.

He has a habit of spending other people’s money very freely. In 1991, Srpska Rec magazine published a list of some 20 politicians and businessmen who had received money from Zecevic. None of them filed suit for libel although some denied the amounts in the report.

He is also reported to be a frequent guest of elite restaurants in Paris. Bank records show that he spent 150,000 francs on gifts and restaurants in the first half of 1989 alone. In May 1990, French state bank inspectors voiced surprise that there was no control over the Franco-Yugoslav bank’s operations by either the French or Yugoslav shareholders.

Perhaps that’s the reason why Zecevic is refusing to return to Yugoslavia.