The District Commercial Court in East Sarajevo auctioned off apartments in the “Vučko” hotel complex on Jahorina to settle the outstanding loan debt of “B&B Vučko” to the Investment-Development Bank of Republika Srpska (IRBRS). These apartments were initially mortgaged by “B&B Vučko” in 2012 as collateral for a 6 million BAM loan, using falsified documentation, as previously reported by the Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIN).
Years of non-payment led the debt, including accrued interest and late fees, to soar to around 12 million BAM. As a result, 43 apartments, appraised by a court expert at over 9 million BAM, were offered in a court-ordered enforcement sale in Istočno Sarajevo.
IRB spent nearly a decade attempting to collect the debt, but no sale took place during that time. In early 2024, Bijeljina attorney Miloš Stevanović, through his firm “Standard Prva,” acquired debts owed to IRB by various companies totaling 180 million BAM, which included the debt held by “B&B Vučko.” This transfer made “Standard Prva” the claimant in the enforcement proceedings, replacing IRB.
At the initial auction of the apartments in August 2024, several interested buyers, including both legal entities and individuals, attended but ultimately withdrew from bidding. During the second hearing, “Standard Prva” purchased all the apartments for 4.569 million BAM.
However, this sale only covered the principal loan amount of 6 million BAM owed by “B&B Vučko,” leaving accrued interest and penalties unpaid. As the claimant in the enforcement proceedings, “Standard Prva” retains the right to seek repayment of these outstanding interest amounts from other assets owned by “B&B Vučko.” Attorney Stevanović was unable to comment on the matter due to contractual obligations with IRB.
Let’s remind the audience that in 2012, “B&B Vučko” obtained a 6 million BAM loan as part of a financing program for investment projects in Republika Srpska, funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB). However, loan documentation shows that IRB provided inaccurate information to the EIB regarding the loan’s intended use and expenditure.
Despite this, IRB asserts that no mistakes were made in issuing the loan. In May 2022, IRB confirmed to CIN that “B&B Vučko,” including accrued interest, owed approximately 12 million BAM, though it did not disclose the debt status for 2023 and 2024.
During this time, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been servicing the loan, as the state was the signatory on a 2009 agreement with the EIB for a 50 million EUR credit line. This agreement stipulated that the funds would be allocated to finance investment projects in Republika Srpska through the IRBRS Development and Employment Fund.
The company “B&B Vučko” is run by Milomir and Aleksandar Prović, a father and son who developed the “Vučko” hotel-apartment complex in Jahorina with investors from Serbia and Russia.
“What problem do you or anyone else have with that? The state is repaying it and the state will collect it” commented Aleksandar Prović to CIN in 2023 regarding the financial difficulties faced by his business.
CIN uncovered that forgery, deceived partners, and multimillion BAM debts have surrounded the development of the “Vučko” complex for decades. Local authorities enabled the Prović family to acquire state-owned land on Jahorina, while entity-level authorities granted them multimillion BAM loans.
Journalists have uncovered that the IRB approved a loan to B&B Vučko based on falsified documentation regarding the pledge of real estate in Jahorina. The properties in question belonged to Club Aparthotel Vučko which was co-owned by the Prović family along with investors Mirko Tica from Serbia and Dragan Đordan from Russia. These investors never authorized the use of the properties as collateral for the loan. Nonetheless, in 2012, the Provićs provided the IRB with a forged decision from the Club Aparthotel Vučko Assembly, falsely pledging the company’s apartments as mortgage collateral. These properties were recently acquired through a court auction by a company owned by an attorney from Bijeljina.
According to the documentation submitted to the IRB, the real estate in Jahorina was mortgaged by Ana Kovačević, the sister of Aleksandar Prović, who was the director of “Club Aparthotel Vučko” at the time.
She signed documents stating that the co-owners of the company at the extraordinary general meeting held in March 2012 via teleconference, approved the pledging of the property. However, none of the co-owners attended this general meeting nor did they sign the company’s agreement to pledge the property. As it turned out, Kovačević made this document five months earlier and attached it to the loan application.
Notary Gordana Gerdijan, who certified the mortgage, told CIN: “How could I know that these were fake documents, all of which were signed and, with a seal, if the bank had their credit committee there, the references?”
At that time, in 2012, Aleksandar Džombić, the Prime Minister of the RS and Chairman of the Credit Committee, a family friend of the Provićs, decided to grant the loan. He had also approved a 5 million BAM IRB loan for them in 2009, hastening messages to the then-IRB director to urgently approve the loan for B&B Vučko.
The District Prosecutor’s Office in Istočno Sarajevo has suspended its investigation into the Prović family over the alleged falsification of documentation for the IRB loan. Prosecutor Halida Vrabac told CIN that she “simply doubted that IRB would have approved the loan if forged documents had been involved”.
