Ma Dafina Needs To Be Rescued?

Many experts tend to believe that neither Jezda nor Dafina owned the privet banks in the true sense of the word. These "money houses" were "contrived" in the political centers of power in order to replace the compromised state banks which had robbed the depositors of some 3 billion dollars. At the same time, these were the banks for financing the war on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina and for getting around the sanctions. If they are viewed in this context, then their collapse speaks in favor of the approaching of peace and the fact that Milosevic is "trimming" the financial base of the "war lobby" through the fight against crime

If Dafina Milanovic was to reveal the list of all "large investors" who had of the last three weeks of the financial panic, following Jezidmir Vasiljevic's escape from the country, allegedly withdrawn 350 million dollars from her "Dafiment Bank," then probably the entire war and "patriotic" lobby would see he light of day. Only after this elitist unit for support of the aggressive Serbian authorities had been paid from the profits on the social safety - did Dafina announce that "those who were diabolically organized to shake up Serbia from the inside" can be found in the crowd of depositors, storming the windows of her bank.

If a figure of 350 million dollars represents yet another of the brazen lies, to which the "Serbia Mother" often resorted over the last year of her bank's incredible rise, and if the payments were much smaller, there is an impression that the state was called for help, only after the true beneficiaries of the social peace had saved their money, just a minute before new sanctions, which might turn out to be more effective in putting an end to the speculative deals than is Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's fight against crime. The point is that he public call for help was sent to the state which is no longer able to help.

On March 31 Dafina announced the fight against traitors in her own bank and the war against the outside enemy, engaged in breaking the doors on the bank's branch offices. Thus, she set the stage for the drama, which is in store for her favourite Serbian state as well. Since "the future has already begun," the story about "Dafiment Bank" deserves to be covered to a greater extent. The Bank's decision, passed March 30, that the payments of hard currency deposits and interests will be limited to 1,000 DM or 500,000 dinars until April 5, is only an attempt to legalize what the ordinary mortals and this Bank's savings account holders have been going through for weeks now, practically since March 8 when "Jugoskandik" went down the drain and when anyone in the right mind realized that the wave, which not even Dafina can stop, was set in motion. Especially quick to grasp this were those whom the "greatest Serbian banker" gave her approval to withdraw the largest deposits for "justifiable reasons." On March 12 Dafina stated that she would not allow the "cancellation of the contracts which restrict the time of withdrawal of hard currency deposits." The panic caused by Jezdimir Vasiljevic is a reason, she said. Dafina is now lamenting over 350 million dollars which vanished from her bank account as a consequence of contract cancellations in March. The biggest deposits have obviously vanished. Namely, if the limit had been applied during the "Ides of March" over 500,000 depositors would be paid now, which at least 20 times more than the number of those who actually managed to reach her tellers in this time period. It is difficult to assess the current standing in Dafina's till, but it is already doubtful whether the limited payments will be made regularly, since the financial help from the National Bank of Serbia, which amounts to 5 billion dinars, could satisfy just about the daily needs of the"Dafiment Bank." The fact that the state has "not sweated" over saving this bank or is simply unable to do it - could be argued since Dafina was granted a loan at a 300 percent monthly interest rate, for it was approved from the last reserves, but with a deposit in gold for security.

It seems that Zeljko Raznjatovic - Arkan, the parliament member and well-known volunteers commander, was one of the large investors, who withdrew his share as early as March 11 (3 days after Vasiljevic's escape made the news). In his familiar manner, which charms with simplicity, that day Arkan suddenly sold his exchange office "Delije" in the Cumicevo sokace Mall - for no less than 1.5 million DM. Everybody took it as the settling of accounts at farewell, and not as a sale. How much money did the other equally realistic Karadzic's and Hadzic's men and their friends in Belgrade managed to pull out - may be known one day, but it probably won't. Only the impoverished commoners were left in the lurch. The authorities moved them from the city center to the queues in front of the ticket windows of the Yugoslav People's Army stadium. But, only a few out of 28 windows were open for some time. It was clear that Dafina was slowing down her services, until someone beyond her assumed responsibility for a cut in astronomical interest rates.

Dafina Milanovic sensed on March 12 that she could cut down the interest rates to a 10 times lower level in the wake of Jezda's scandalous escape (the annual 24 percent on DM restricted from withdrawing for over 12 months).

At the same time this shrewd woman anticipated that with such a decision she might be cutting the branch where she has been sitting for over a year now, so she made a promise that pensioners would continue to enjoy old beneficial interest rates, while putting off the implementation date of lower rates two times. Namely, Dafina made a statement, which has now become famous, "One must live on work, and not off interest rates."

Dafina Milanovic obviously had no time to wait that the responsibility for the reduction of her interest rates is assumed by someone else, for example, the new Federal Prime Minister Radoje Kontic. According to the Belgrade daily, "Vecernje Novosti," she sent him a letter containing a rather detailed advice about what should be done. In the letter she allegedly stressed that "the interest rates on foreign currency should not exceed the domestic rates on the given currency by more than 3 to 5 percent while anything above that would be subjected to a 100 percent taxation" (both the bank and the depositor sharing the damage equally). It is interesting that in his address to the Yugoslav Parliament on March 29, Kontic actually announced the limitation of hard currency interest rates to the levels of foreign and domestic rates, along with certain stimulation. He may have supported her to this effect, but on the same occasion he also announced a package of measures against the policy of hard currency drain abroad, as well as number of measures to increase the inflow in the completely exhausted hard currency reserves of the National Bank of Yugoslavia. Theoretically, these measures would reduce the income of the "Dafina Trade" and many other Dafina's companies in the country, which allegedly in cooperation with 26 companies abroad of the very same firm, dispose with the people's savings in profitable transactions. But, this is theory, while the practical aspects might get cleared up one day. No one actually knows how much of the people's money the "Dafiment Bank" has spent in the Yugoslav war, and how much she has transferred abroad through her joint ventures there. It is worth noting that the Federal Hard Currency Inspectorate announced it would check the "Dafiment Bank." However, nothing has as yet been learned about its findings, although this offices has proved its efficiency in several other cases.

As is the case with most of the local banks (both private ones and those "converted" into share-holding companies ), there are many things which are not in compliance with the law when the "Dafiment Bank" is concerned. It is not widely known that, legally speaking, there are two "Dafiment Banks." One of them was refused a license by the Governors' Council to handle hard currencies, and the other was speedily registered as a joint-stock bank (probably as Serbian-Jewish). Namely, helped by the already famous Serbian national worker, Klara Mandic, the former publisher from Jerusalem, Israel Klemant, entered the business with Dafina. Owing to Kelman's investment, the "Dafiment Bank" immediately acquired the status of a bank with considerable, hard currency power. That means that Dafina gained the right to take the capital out of the country by using banking channels to the purpose of paying its foreign obligations.

However, the reports coming from the Yugoslav-Hungarian border point that Dafina did not shun more earthly channels for trafficking cash. It was established at the beginning of March that four customs officers at the Horgosz-Reska border crossing received 20,000 DM worth of loans each, to be paid off in 5 year's time at a 20 percent interest rate. The loans were approved by the "Dafiment Bank" from the funds intended for agriculture, "so that farmers' safety when investing into the normal production is guaranteed" (the Belgrade daily BORBA, March 13-14).

Where has the "Dafiment Bank" made the long-term investments is a question to become most current, when it comes to evaluating the assets. Dafina Milanovic has withheld from answering the question precisely. She has already invested the alleged 40 million dollars in the preparations and construction of two big business centers in Belgrade. Dafina's possible creditors should be least interested in finding out how much money she has actually invested in the business center in Erdut, in Krajina. Most of it may have been engulfed by the companies abroad (25 of them), but this information could not pacify Dafina's depositors either - on the contrary.

The Bank's dinar transactions (surely in a tight connection with hard currency deals- in the streets) have not been promoted much in the public. At the beginning of February the Belgrade daily "Politika" notice a strange slide on the account of the "Dafiment Bank." For example, a 9,247,909 dinar overdraft marked on February 1 reached 1,309,794,390 the next day, February 2 (150-fold increase). Therefore, the Central Bank first helped our in mid February with 2.5 billion dinars, and than with another 3.5 billion. The Bank has helped, but not enough.

All about the liaisons between the "Dafiment Bank" and the federal and republic states has yet to be learned. Many experts, like Danijel Cvijeticanin, tend to believe, that neither Jezda nor Dafina owned the privet banks in the true sense of the word. These "money houses" were "contrived" in the political centers of power in order to replace the compromised state banks which had robbed the depositors of some 3 billion dollars. At the same time, these were the banks for financing the war on the territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina and for getting around the sanctions. If they are viewed in this context, then their collapse speaks in favor of the approaching of peace and the fact that Milosevic is "trimming" the financial base of the "war lobby" through the fight against crime.

The latest events have cut in the myth of Jezda and Dafina being the patrons of the social peace in FR Yugoslavia. Dafina has insolently promoted a lie that she has over 14 million savings account holders, which is more than Yugoslavia's total population. She supported this with claims that a large number of account holders is to be found among the emigrants, citing an example that "two or three" buses full of Hungarians have come to invest their money in her bank. Little expertise is needed to realize that this is a lie, which could be legally termed as "fraud." She has now admitted that it was all about her 17 million contracts. Since, theoretically, each depositor could make five to six such contracts on average, it is estimated that there are some 3 million people who can be counted in front of the "Dafiment Bank." Judging by Jezda's portfolio of 100,000 depositors, the writer of these lines believes that Dafina had 500,000 depositors at most. However, regardless of the number, all of us have financed their "social peace," while the ones to skim the cream off were those who canceled their contracts in March, with Dafina's approval (even if they had taken 35 million dollars, it is still a lot). Therefore, it is them who could be called the true beneficiaries of the civil war and social peace in Serbia.

Naturally, it is impossible to foresee an end to all this, and whether Dafina's imitation of the Serbian political scene and the socialist-radical scenario will prolong the life of the bank, just as this scenario is sustaining the life of the authorities. Bojan Dimitrijevic, the assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, has of all experts given the boldest analysis of the "Dafiment recipe" for success. He believes that the state will, after all, consider the patriotic outcry of this mistress and slow down her collapse. The authorities fear more massive dissatisfaction of the poor, Dimitrijevic said.

Very little is publicly known abut a group which actually founded the "Dafiment Bank," although Dafina says that it is a "group of eminent lawyers who in 1988 owned the first private company and a printing house with outlets in Ljubljana, Sarajevo and Belgrade." In the midst of her fantastic financial headway, last summer, Dafina's husband, son and one daughter were killed in a car accident in Hungary. We shall not make any comments on the statements that she swore on her son's coffin that she would never betray the Serbs and Serbia, and her words that she appreciated Ivo Andric's sentence, "When I'm not desperate, I'm worth nothing." Nor shall we comment on the stories that the doctor who assisted her daughter's delivery received a Mercedes as a gift, on her timing to end the period of mourning on 1992 New Year's Eve, her gold jewelry, her jingoism, etc. Her statements that she is "proud that Slobodan Milosevic exists," that she "got to know him as a person," that "he is something to be admired and the right thing Serbia needs" perfectly fit in with all above.

In the end, when the fog and hang-over in this country clear up, economic historians will record that once there was a woman in the Balkans who managed to keep a money illusion going for a long, long time.