The US Treasury Department has slapped sanctions on Milorad Dodik’s adult children, Igor and Gorica, as well as on four companies associated with ‘facilitating Dodik’s ongoing corruption’.
Igor and Gorica Dodik, son and daughter of the President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, joined the list of individuals sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC, on Friday.
Besides Dodik’s children, OFAC also slapped sanctions on four legal entities used to “facilitate Dodik’s ongoing corruption in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska entity, allowing him to siphon public funds from the RS and enrich himself and his family,” OFAC stated.
OFAC stated that since 2021, Dodik has increased the involvement of his son and daughter “in political and business activities within the RS, causing concern that the RS was becoming more like a Dodik family business rather than a political entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
According to OFAC, the companies Global Liberty d.o.o. Laktasi (Global Liberty), Agro Voce d.o.o. Laktasi (Agro Voce), Agape Gorica Dodik i Ivana Dodik s.p. Banja Luka (Agape), and Fruit Eco d.o.o. Gradiska (Gradiska) – owned either by Igor Dodik, Gorica Dodik or both of them, “receive public assistance through preferential treatment as a result of being owned by Dodik’s family”.
Responding to the sanctions, Gorica Dodik on X (formerly Twitter) shared the news in Bosnian with a short description: “Boohoo.. It really shocked me.”
Her father and brother remained silent by the time of publication.
According to OFAC, during the last general election in Bosnia, in October 2022, Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, SNSD, “including Gorica and Igor, conspired to bribe political officials, polling station members, and election observers in effort to corruptly win the election”.
“Igor (Dodik) engaged in bribery of opposition politicians, who were offered political appointments in exchange for critical information and election observer positions at polling locations,” OFAC stated.
“Dodik’s daughter, Gorica (Dodik), is involved in handling political and business activities for her father, to include owning several entities that receive substantial RS government assistance at Dodik’s direction,” it added.
The sanctions imply seizure of all property or financial means owned by the sanctioned individuals or companies in the United States, while all US-based companies are banned from working with them.
In August, the US sanctioned four high-ranking Republika Srpska officials. They included the Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency, Zeljka Cvijanovic, the prime minister of Republika Srpska, Radovan Viskovic, parliament speaker Nenad Stevandic, and RS justice minister Milos Bukejlovic.
The list of people from Bosnia who have already been sanctioned by the US includes the former chief of the Intelligence Security Agency, Osman ‘Osmica’ Mehmedagic, former Federation entity Prime Minister Fadil Novalic, former state-level prosecutor Dijana Kajmakovic and the former president of the Federation entity, Marinko Cavara, as well as Dodik.
Source : Balkaninsight