The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced the former director of Bosnia’s Indirect Taxation Authority, Kemal Causevic, to nine years in prison and ordered the confiscation of property worth 1.7 million Bosnian Marks (BAM) from him for abuse of office, money laundering and receiving bribes.

Causevic and 53 others were arrested in a June 2014 police operation dubbed ‘Pandora’. Among those arrested were numerous employees of the Indirect Taxation Authority, as well as those working at customs terminals. The indictment was confirmed in 2017.

Prosecutor Dubravko Campara assessed that it had been proven that Causevic had contacted textile traders Anes Sadikovic and Sedinet Karic at the beginning of 2007 and “agreed to favour their companies to the detriment of others.”

Campara noted that witnesses in the case said that Sadikovic and Karic, in return, gave Causevic 1,000 BAM per imported truck. He added that Causevic received more than 1.7 million in that way. Nearly 1.3 million BAM from Sadikovic, and about 425,000 BAM from Karic.

Sadikovic was sentenced to two years, while Karic to one year behind bars.