Serbian opposition financier arrested in Spain for fraud
On the basis of an Interpol warrant in Malaga, Spain, the third key partner of one of the leaders of the pro-Western “Alliance for Serbia,” former Serbian Foreign Minister and Chairman of the UN General Assembly Vuk Jeremic, Emilio Lozoja, was taken into custody.
Earlier, in 2017, his other two key partners, Patrick Hoa and Sheik Gadya, were arrested in New York.
This was reported by the independent Western Balkan media platform Antidot, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the portal, the report of Lozoya’s arrest became one of the main news stories in such media as The New York Times, Financial Times and Reuters.
Information about Lozoya's arrest on the front page of The New York Times.
According to preliminary estimates, acting through the company CIRSD, Lozoya and Hoa laundered money from corrupt activities when Jeremic was head of the UN General Assembly. Also, according to investigators, Hoa and Lozoya transferred at least $7 million to the account of Jeremic’s company in Belgrade.
Vuk Jeremic and Emilio Lozoya.
At the same time, in Mexico, Emilio Lozoya, who at one time was the head of the state oil corporation PEMEX, is accused of tax evasion, accepting bribes in connection with the acquisition of a fertilizer production enterprise, for which $474 million was paid, although at the time of purchase it was not functioned. He is also involved in a corruption scandal involving his friend, former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, which handed out about 800 million in bribes to obtain lucrative tenders, much of which related to Mexico and Lozoya's business activities.
Last May, Interpol arrested Lozoy's mother, Gilda Margarita Austin, in Germany on charges of facilitating money laundering, after which she was deported to Mexico and placed under house arrest. Emilio himself was arrested in the vicinity of Malaga in the prestigious resort of Marabella, where he was hiding from the law living in a premium residential complex.
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