Scanner II: 49 persons arrested within several different investigations
The police arrested 49 persons because of a doubt that they damaged the budget of Serbia, Vojvodina and municipalities for 7.6 million Euros. Those arrested in the Scanner II operation are charged for bribe, corruption, money laundering and other types of the economy crimes since 2007 up till this day.
Despite the fact that the arrests were conducted in a single day within the operation Scanner II, the press release about the results of this action contains 18 different individual statements about the arrests within several different investigations.
The arrested individuals are the suspects in several criminal acts since 2007 up until today, that mostly refer to the abuse of the official position in states’ institutions.
Among the arrested, there are managers and employees of the Tax Administration, former Ministry of Environment and Space Planning, officials of Local Governments, employees in several public enterprises “Elektro-privreda Srbije”, “Poste Srbije”, “Elektrokosmet”.
12 traffic inspectors were arrested, and suspected to have committed the criminal act of bribery.
Criminal charges have been raised for 25 individuals, while 2 are still being pursued.
In the press release of MUP it is stated that the action was conducted in the cooperation with Prosecutor’s offices and Tax police in many cities of Serbia: Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Bor, Zajecar, Jagodina, Kraljevo, Kragujevac, Nis, Sombor, Kikinda and Zrenjanin.
Previous operation very similar to this one
On March 18th, the police arrested 46 individuals in the same day under suspicion for economic crime, money laundering and bribery.
This is not the only resemblance between these two operations. The Police stated then that the suspects were arrested for criminal act committed between 2007 and today, for damaging the budget of Serbia and Vojvodina for more than 7 million Euros.
Besides the money laundering acts, 16 officers of the Traffic Police were arrested in Belgrade then, because of the suspicion that they were receiving bribe and abused the official position, damaging the republic budget for 3 million dinars.
Among other things, the former officer of RF PIO (Pension and Disability Insurance Fund) in Belgrade, and magistrate in Guca were arrested for bribery.
Besides Belgrade, the arrests were made in Lazarevac, Kragujevac, Sombor, Novi Sad, Pozarevac and Pancevo.
The Director of Tax Administration branch in Paracin arrested
Tax Administration of Serbia has stated today that during the police operation, the Director of Tax Administration branch in Paracin as well as three executives, inspector of office control and one employee were arrested for bribery and corruption.
In the press release, the Tax Administration stated that it will never tolerate corruption among the tax offices nor the abuse of the official position.